Apprenticeship training in Germany - investment or productivity driven?

"The German dual apprenticeship system has come under pressure in recent years because enterprises have not been willing to provide a sufficient number of apprenticeship positions. An argument that is frequently put forward is that the gap could be closed if more firms were willing to incur net costs during the training period. This paper investigates on the basis of representative data whether German enterprises do indeed incur net costs on average during the apprenticeship period, i.e. whether the impact of an increase in the share of apprentices on contemporary profits is negative. The paper uses the representative linked employer-employee panel data of the IAB (LIAB) and takes into account possible endogeneity of training intensity and unobserved heterogeneity in the profit estimation by employing panel system GMM methods. An increase in the share of apprentices has no effect on profits. This can be interpreted as a first indication that most establishments in Germany do not invest more in apprentices than their productivity effects during the apprenticeship period." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Kurzfassung (deutsch) Executive summary (English)Ausbildungsverhalten, Ausbildungsbetrieb, Betrieb, betriebliche Berufsausbildung, Bildungsökonomie, Bildungsinvestitionen, Bildungsausgaben, Gewinn, Auszubildende, Produktivität, Personalpolitik, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz

Apprenticeship Training in Germany? Investment or Productivity Driven?

The German dual apprenticeship system came under pressure in recent years because enterprises were not willing to offer a sufficient number of apprenticeship positions. A frequently made argument is that the gap could be closed if more firms would be willing to incur net costs during the training period. This paper investigates for the first time whether German enterprises on average indeed incur net costs during the apprenticeship period, i.e. if the impact of an increase in the share of apprentices on contemporary profits is negative. The paper uses the representative linked employer-employee panel data of the IAB (LIAB) and takes into account possible endogeneity of training intensity and unobserved heterogeneity in the profit estimation by employing panel system GMM methods. An increase in the share of apprentices has no effect on profits. This can be interpreted as a first indication that most establishments in Germany do not invest more in apprentices than their productivity effects during the apprenticeship period. --

The Employment Consequences of Seniority Wages

This paper combines two strains of the literature on the employment effects of deferred compensation. The first strain separates seniority and job matching wage effects on the basis of individual data, but cannot look at employment consequences. The second strain explains the employment structure on the basis of establishment data, but cannot properly calculate seniority wages. This paper uses linked employeremployee data, aggregates individual seniority wages to the establishment level, and correlates them with the establishment employment structure. According to the deferred compensation hypothesis this paper finds that establishments with stronger seniority wages have a higher tenure but hire less older employees. --Seniority Wages,Employment Structure,Linked Employer-Employee Data

Innovations induce asymmetric employment movements

This paper provides a labour supply explanation to the observation that in Germany employment changes are asymmetric during the business cycle. Employment increases are slower, because the reservation wage of workers increases in times of job uncertainty. Workers are afraid in those periods of losing their sunk and necessary human capital investments. They weigh the risks and benefits of investing in human capital with their certain outside option when they decide about staying in the labour market. Human capital investments are sunk and necessary, because firms need new skills while older skills get obsolete at a constant rate. Skill obsolescence is induced by innovations. --

Works Councils and the Productivity Impact of Direct Employee Participation

This paper measures the productivity impact of management-led participative establishment practices. On the basis of a representative German establishment data set, the IAB establishment panel, the study finds that the presence of team-work, a reduction of hierarchies and autonomous work groups in 1997 significantly increases average establishment productivity in 1997 – 2000. An endogeneous switching regression model takes the endogeneity of work councils into account and shows that the productivity effect can only be measured in establishments with works councils, i.e. employee induced participation. The estimation strategy controls for unobserved time invariant establishment heterogeneity by using a two-step system GMM panel regression approach. It simultaneously controls for endogeneity of participative work organization by using instrument variable regressions. --employee participation,works council,establishment productivity,panel regression

Why training older employees is less effective

This paper shows that training of older employees is less effective. Training effectiveness is measured with respect to key dimensions such as career development, earnings, adoption of new skills, flexibility or job security. Older employees also pursue less ambitious goals with their training participation. An important reason for these differences during the life cycle might be that firms do not offer the 'right' training forms and contents. Older employees get higher returns from informal and directly relevant training and from training contents that can be mainly tackled by crystallised abilities. Training incidence in the more effective training forms is however not higher for older employees. Given that other decisive variables on effectiveness such as training duration, financing and initiative are not sensitive to age, the wrong allocation of training contents and training forms therefore is critical for the lower effectiveness of training. --Training,Older Employees,Linked-Employer-Employee Data

Continuous Training and Firm Productivity in Germany

This paper presents for the first time panel evidence on the productivity effects of training intensity and different training forms in Germany. It hereby takes account of selectivity of training activities, unobserved heterogeneity of establishments as well as omitted variable bias. Using the waves 1997 – 2000 of the IAB establishment panel, it is found that when the share of trained employees in 1997 is higher, productivity is significantly higher in the period 1997 - 1999. Formal internal and external courses have the highest positive impact on productivity, self-induced learning and quality circles have a smaller positive impact, while training on the job, seminars and talks and job rotation do not affect productivity. The decision to train is selective. Firms with an inefficient production structure deliberately use training in order to boost productivity. --Training,Firm Productivity,Panel Estimation

Optimization of a field-widened Michelson interferometer

This paper considers the optical design of a wide-angle fixed-path Michelson interferometer consisting of two arm glasses and an air gap. It is shown that this configuration can be optimized to give (a) extra large fringes (over 50° in diameter) over a range of wavelength, (b) a path difference nearly independent of wavelength, or (c) a path difference specified differently at two different wavelengths for observing a pair of doublets. Specific examples refer to the airglow wavelengths of 557.7, 630.0, 732.0 nm and others, and to a path difference of 4.5 cm. The properties of different glass combinations are discussed