Teaching to the top and seeking out superstars

We consider the impact of recruitment and training policies for the incentives of agents with career concerns. Training can be targeted it can be chosen to have more of an impact on particular types of agents. Similarly, recruitment techniques can focus on nding superstars or weeding out poor performers. In a model that nests two forms of production, routinework in which compe-tence substitutes for e¤ort and creativework where ability and e¤ort are comple-ments, we highlight that di¤erent ways to improve average ability can have exactly opposite implications for career concerns. While teaching to the top (training which is complementary to ability) or identifying star performers increases agentsreputational concerns, teaching to the bottom has the opposite e¤ect