Monopsony Power, Pay Structure and Training

Although interest in monopsonistic influences on labour market outcomes has revived in recent years, only a few empirical studies provide direct evidence on it. This paper analyses empirically the effect of monopsony power on pay structure, using a direct measure of labour market 'thinness'. We find that having fewer competitors for skilled labour is associated at the level of the establishment with lower pay for both skilled labour and trainees, but not for unskilled labour. These findings have potentially important implications for the economic theory of training, as most recent models assume that skilled pay is set monopsonistically but both unskilled and trainee pay are determined competitively. Our results support those assumptions for skilled pay and unskilled pay, but not for trainee pay.monopsony, wage differentials, firm-sponsored training

The Cost and Benefits of Work-based Learning

Dual apprenticeship training is increasingly seen as an important educational track that provides youth with the skills necessary for a smooth transition into the labour market. However, providing skills at the workplace rather than at (vocational) school comes at a cost for firms that hire such apprentices. Nonetheless, as apprentices become part of a firm’s workforce, they also generate a benefit from working productively. This paper provides a theoretical framework and the latest empirical evidence about a firm’s costs and benefits that are associated with offering dual apprenticeship training. While many aspects of such training are determined by external factors such as government policies, training regulations, and labour market institutions, firms can still influence many other aspects. The available empirical evidence suggests that there is no single optimal model of dual apprenticeship training. However, given the differences in the institutional setting across countries, adjusting key framework conditions can allow training firms to generate a sufficiently high return on their training investments. The main parameters affecting the cost–benefit ratio are apprentice wages, amount of training provided at the workplace, apprenticeship duration, and the manner in which firms integrate apprentices into the production process (to perform both skilled and unskilled tasks). An important prerequisite to successful apprenticeships, however, is also an adequate supply of suitable apprentices, which in turn (among other factors) depends on the training quality at the workplace, certification of the acquired skills, and future wages and career opportunities from obtaining a vocational qualification

Apprenticeship Training and the Business Cycle

Dual apprenticeship training is a market-driven form of education at the upper secondary level, taking place in firms as well as in vocational schools. So far, little is known about the impact of the business cycle on the number of apprenticeship programs offered by firms. Using panel-data of Swiss cantons from 1988-2004, we find that the influence of the business cycle is statistically significant, but small in size. Instead, supply of apprenticeship programs is driven to a much greater extent by demographic change. Conversely, the number of first-year high school students is not affected by the business cycle. We find, however, that enrollment increases if the population at age 16 grows, but access to high schools does not become more restricted in times of negative growth.apprenticeship training, business cycle, high school enrollment

Force monitor for training manual skills in the training of chiropractors

As part of their training, students of Chiropractic Medicine at Zürich are trained to acquire and then improve their manual and manipulative skills, especially their ability to deliver manipulative thrusts with a defined preloading force, an impulse that is delivered with an adequate and reproducible force within a defined time without letting up on the preload-pressure. In order to facilitate this process, objective feedback is paramount. This led to the idea of developing a force-measurement and -monitoring system. The newly developed system consists of a wireless device with a force sensor and an app that is running on standard smartphones. The device records the force applied to the sensor and transmits it via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to the app. There it is visualised as a graph and can be evaluated. The system allows us to provide all students with a tool to develop their manual skills, and especially their thrusting technique. As the feedback given by the system can be record ed, progress can be monitored and students can be mentored accurately according to their strengths and weaknesses

Substantially enhanced cloning efficiency of SAGE (Serial Analysis of Gene Expression) by adding a heating step to the original protocol

The efficiency of the original SAGE (Serial Analysis of Gene Expression) protocol was limited by a small average size of cloned concatemers. We describe a modification of the technique that overcomes this problem. Ligation of ditags yields concatemers of various sizes. Small concatemers may aggregate and migrate with large ones during gel electrophoresis. A heating step introduced before gel electrophoresis breaks such contaminating aggregates. This modification yields cloned concatemers with an average size of 67 tags as compared to 22 tags by the original protocol. It enhances the length of cloned concatemers substantially and reduces the costs of SAG

Virus discovery using current and novel methods

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology allows researchers to sequence genetic material from a wide range of sources, including patient and environmental samples, and ancient remains. The recovery of viruses from such datasets can provide insights into the diversity and evolution of both novel and already known viruses. This thesis focuses on two aspects of virus discovery in NGS datasets. In the first part of this thesis, I present ancient viral sequences from hepatitis B virus, human parvovirus B19, and variola virus. The sequences were recovered from NGS datasets from individuals living in Eurasia between ∼150 to ∼31,630 years ago, using standard sequence matching tools. The data show the past existence of viruses similar to variants circulating today. The sequences reveal a complexity of virus evolution that is not evident when considering modern sequences alone, including revised substitution rates and most recent common ancestor dates, as well as geographic movement and extinction of strains. The identification of viral sequences in NGS datasets relies heavily on sequence-based matching of unknown sequences to a database of known sequences. Comparisons are usually done at the nucleotide or amino acid level. However, those methods only work well on sequences closely related to those already present in the database. With the aim of identifying more diverged viral sequences, in the second part of this thesis, I present an algorithm to compare sequences based on predicted structural features, such as secondary structures and conserved amino acids. The algorithm is modelled after the music-matching algorithm ‘Shazam’. While initial results of the algorithm are somewhat encouraging, problems remain, in particular with the identification of adequate structural features. Identifying highly diverged viral sequences is thus still a challenging problem, hopefully to be solved in the future

Hiring Costs of Skilled Workers and the Supply of Firm-Provided Training

This paper analyzes how the costs of hiring skilled workers from the external labor market affect a firm's supply of training. Using administrative survey data with detailed information on hiring and training costs for Swiss firms, we find evidence for substantial and increasing marginal hiring costs. However, firms can invest in internal training of unskilled workers and thereby avoid costs for external hiring. Controlling for a firm's training investment, we find that a one standard deviation increase in average external hiring costs increases the number of internal training positions by 0.7 standard deviations.hiring costs, apprenticeship training, firm-sponsored training