Continuing Vocational Training in Germany: A Comparative Study Using 3 German Data Set

Empirical work on continuing training in Germany provides surprisingly divergent evidence on the incidence of training. This makes comparison of econometric analyses of the impact of training on labour market outcomes di?cult. Three large German data sets are used here to bring to light the data issue concerning continuing training. Differences in the definition and consequences for economic research are discussed. In detail, training incidence, determinants of training and the correlation between continuing vocational training and wages are examined. Results are compared in order to analyse in how far differences in estimated wage effects of continuing vocational training are due to the data set used and to how the training variable is set up. --continuing vocational training,determinants of training,correlation of training with wage

Heterogeneous Returns to Training: An Analysis with German Data Using Local Instrumental Variables

Empirical work on the wage impact of training has noted that unobserved heterogeneity of training participants should play a role. The expected return to training, which partly depends on unobservable characteristics, is likely to be a crucial criterion in the decision to take part in training or not. We try to account for this fact by using recent advances in estimating returns to schooling, which allow for selection on unobservables, and apply it to estimating the impact of training on earnings. Allowing heterogeneity to be unobserved by the econometrician, but assuming that individuals may act upon this heterogeneity, completely changes the interpretation and properties of commonly used estimators. Our results based on local instrumental variables suggest that traditional estimates of the wage impact of training overestimate this effect. --Vocational training,treatment effects,semiparametric estimation,Local instrumental variables

Wage and Productivity Effect of Continuing Training in Germany : A Sectoral Analysis

Wage and productivity effects of training are compared to study how the training rent is shared between employers and employees. With panel data from 1996-2002, I analyse the impact of continuing training on wages and productivity in a Cobb-Douglas production framework. Using system GMM techniques allows me to account for endogeneity and time invariant unobserved factors. Results suggest that the training rent is shared between employer and employee due to a positive effect of continuing training on both wages and productivity. The effect on productivity is about three times higher than the one on wages. High skilled workers capture a larger share of the rent than low skilled workers

Continuing Vocational Training in Germany - A Comparative Study Using 3 German Data Set

Empirical work on continuing training in Germany provides surprisingly divergent evidence on the incidence of training. This makes comparison of econometric analyses of the impact of training on labour market outcomes difficult. Three large German data sets are used here to bring to light the data issue concerning continuing training. Differences in the definition and consequences for economic research are discussed. In detail, training incidence, determinants of training and the correlation between continuing vocational training and wages are examined. Results are compared in order to analyse in how far differences in estimated wage effects of continuing vocational training are due to the data set used and to how the training variable is set up

The Impact of Training on Earnings: Differences Between Participant Groups and Training Forms

While there is a broad literature on the general wage effect of training, little is known about the effects of different training forms and about the effects for heterogeneous training participants. This study therefore adds two aspects to the literature on earnings effects of training. First, the earnings effect of training is calculated for different ?types? of employees, i.e. discriminating between qualification level, experience, job tenure, and other attributes. Second, we distinguish between the earnings impact of external and internal training. For our analysis, we use the ?Qualification and Career survey?, a rich German data set with information on 0.1 percent of all individuals employed in Germany in 1998/1999. We use a one-step full-information maximum likelihood and a two stage least squares estimation to regress the impact of training participation on earnings correcting for the endogeneity of training participation. By using a broad list of employee and employer characteristics, we try to avoid omitted variable bias. We find the training earnings markup to be positively correlated with qualification and experience. The analysis of internal and external training reveals that this result is driven by external training only. Internal training does not have a significant earnings effect. The correction for selection into training leads to an increase in the training coefficients and a decrease of its significance. --continuing training,returns to training,endogeneity,employee heterogeneity,training forms

Training, Mobility, and Wages: Specific Versus General Human Capital

This paper considers training, mobility decisions and wages together to test for the specificity of human capital contained in continuing training courses. We empirically analyse the relationship between training, mobility and wages in two ways. First, we examine the correlation between training and mobility. In a second step, we consider wage effects of mobility taking training participation into account. First, we find that training participation is negatively correlated with the mobility decision and that training participation decreases the probability of individuals to change the job. Second, we find that wages are lower for job changers for the group of training participants, so wages decrease when trained individuals are mobile. Finally, training participation negatively affects the individuals's subjective valuation of the quality of their last job change. Taken together, these results suggest that there is some specific human capital, which is incorporated into training and lost when moving between jobs. --training,mobility,wages,search,job matching

Worker Remittances and Capital Flows to Developing Countries

Worker remittances constitute an increasingly important mechanism for the transfer of resources from developed to developing countries, and remittances are the second-largest source, behind foreign direct investment, of external funding for developing countries. Yet, literature on worker remittances has so far focused mainly on the impact of remittances on income distribution within countries, on the determinants of remittances at a micro-level, or on the effects of migration and remittances for specific countries or regions. The focus of this paper is thus on four questions: First, how important are worker remittances to developing countries in quantitative terms? Second, what are the determinants driving worker remittances? Third, how volatile are worker remittances to developing countries? Fourth, are remittances correlated to other capital flows? --remittances,capital flows,developing countries

Aggregate Unemployment Decreases Individual Returns to Education

On the basis of a theoretical model, we argue that higher aggregate unemployment affects individual returns to education. We therefore include aggregate unemployment and an interaction term between unemployment and the individual education level in a standard Mincer equation. Our results show that an increase in regional unemployment by 1% decreases the returns to education by 0.005 percentage points. This implies that higher skilled employees are better sheltered from labour market changes with respect to their jobs but encounter larger wage changes than less skilled employees. Differences in regional unemployment can in addition almost fully explain the observed large differences in regional returns to education. We use representative individual data and regional panel variation in unemployment between different German regions and for different employee groups. We demonstrate that our results are robust with respect to aggregation bias, time lags and potential endogeneity of the unemployment variable. --returns to education,unemployment,regional variation

Training, Mobility, and Wages: Specific Versus General Human Capital

This paper considers training, mobility decisions and wages together to test for the specificity human capital contained in continuing training courses. We empirically analyse the relationship between training, mobility and wages in two ways. First, we examine the correlation between training and mobility. In a second step, we consider wage effects of mobility taking training participation into account. First, we find that training participation is negatively correlated with the mobility decision and that training participation decreases the probability of individuals to change the job. Second, we find that wages are lower for job changers for the group of training participants, so wages decrease when trained individuals are mobile. Finally, training participation negatively affects the individuals's subjective valuation of the quality of their last job change. Taken together, these results suggest that there is some specific human capital, which is incorporated into training and lost when moving between jobs

The Impact of Training on Earnings - Differences Between Participant Groups and Training Forms

While there is a broad literature on the general wage e.ect of training, little is known about the e.ects of di.erent training forms and about the e.ects for heterogeneous training participants. This study therefore adds two aspects to the literature on earnings e.ects of training. First, the earnings e.ect of training is calculated for different types of employees, i.e. discriminating between qualification level, experience, job tenure, and other attributes. Second, we distinguish between the earnings impact of external and internal training. For our analysis, we use the Qualification and Career survey, a rich German data set with information on 0.1 percent of all individuals employed in Germany in 1998/1999. We use a one-step full-information maximum likelihood and a two stage least squares estimation to regress the impact of training participation on earnings correcting for the endogeneity of training participation. By using a broad list of employee and employer characteristics, we try to avoid omitted variable bias. We find the training earnings markup to be positively correlated with qualification and experience. The analysis of internal and external training reveals that this result is driven by external training only. Internal training does not have a significant earnings e.ect. The correction for selection into training leads to an increase in the training coe.cients and a decrease of its significance