JOB MATCHING, TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS AND WORKER-PROVIDED ON-THE-JOB TRAINING

Abstract

According to data from the OCDE, almost one third of the total quantity of on-the-job training is worker-provided. The aim of this paper is to study, in a labor market characterized by frictions, the effects of technological progress on the optimal worker-provided on-the-job training. The paper shows that the greater the technological progress rate less is the probability of the worker investing in specific human capital, if the technology is of creative destruction type, and the greater is the probability of the worker investing specific human capital, if the technology is characterized by renovation; whilst the effect over the general human capital investment doesn't exist in both models. The paper also shows that the impact of human capital investments on labor market outcomes depend on the type of investment - either firm or the market oriented. If the investment is totally aimed at the market, we have as a result an increase in the rate of unemployment, whilst if the investment is totally directed at the firm, we have the opposite effect.