Productivity pay-offs from academic mobility: should I stay or should I go?

This article analyses the impact of interorganizational mobility on academic performance. We develop a theoretical framework based on the job-matching approach adapted for researchers. The empirical analysis studies the careers of a sample of 171 UK academics, spanning 1957–2005. We find no evidence that mobility per se increases academic performance. Only mobility to “better” departments has a positive weakly significant impact, while downward mobility reduces researchers’ productivity. Job mobility is always associated with a short-term decrease in performance.