We study how improved wage opportunities for skilled workers affect firm-based training, using the 2002 opening of the Swiss labor market to German commuters as a natural experiment. The reform triggered a large outflow of skilled workers from German border regions, prompting firms to expand apprent…
Entries into firm-based vocational education and training (VET) stagnated in Germany during the 2010s and decreased by 11% between 2019 and 2020, which is likely to exacerbate future shortages of skilled workers. Against this backdrop, we study the VET market through the lens of a matching function …
We show the causal influence of the launch of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of ChatGPT on the search behavior of young people for apprenticeship vacancies. To estimate the short- and medium-term effects, we use a variety of methods, including a difference-in-discontinuity appro…
Does better access to foreign workers reduce firms’ willingness to provide general skills training? We analyze how the opening of the Swiss labor market to workers from the European Union affected the number of apprenticeships that firms provide. We exploit that the availability of foreign workers i…
Drawing on data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we show that students who select majors that do not match their occupational preferences prior to enrolling in university are more likely to drop out than those who do choose majors that match their occupational preferences. Ou…
We study how interpersonal, cognitive, and manual skills affect employment and wages in a search and matching model through their impact on productivity, complementarity, job destruction, and the cost of unemployment. Combining several data sets on workers who acquired skills in vocational education…
This paper explores whether firms recruit workers with different personality traits for different tasks. We conduct a discrete choice experiment among recruiters of 634 firms in Germany, asking recruiters to choose between job applicants who differ in seven characteristics: professional competence, …
In this paper, we study whether Swiss employers substitute between training apprentices and hiring cross-border workers. Because both training apprentices and hiring skilled workers are costly for firms, we hypothesize that (easier) access to cross-border workers will lead some employers to substitu…
This study focused on the labor market effects of the Finnish comprehensive school reform in 1972–1977 over the lifecycle. The reform increased the age at which students are separated into vocational and general tracks from 11 to 16 as well as updated the curriculum to include more general content i…
Apprenticeships are the core track of the Swiss educational system at the upper-secondary level, made possible by the fact that many Swiss firms voluntarily provide appropriate training positions. However, firms’ training provision differs substantively between the language-cultural regions within S…
This paper examines the interaction between vocational and soft skills training on labor market outcomes and expectations of youth in the Dominican Republic. Applicants to a training program were randomly assigned to one of three modalities: a full treatment consisting of vocational and soft skills …
Despite the widespread popularity of entrepreneurship education, there is thin evidence on its effectiveness in improving employment outcomes over the medium to long-term. A potential time lag between entrepreneurial intentions and actions is sometimes presented as a reason why employment impacts ar…
This paper estimates a dynamic heterogenous reatment effects model to examine educational transitions and expected returns in the German education system which is characterized by pronounced early tracking but with options to revise track choices at later stages. We study the value of such options a…
We examine whether firms increase their employment of R&D personnel in response to an expansion of tertiary education institutions, i.e., a supply shock of skilled labor. We use the staggered introduction of Universities of Applied Sciences (UASs) in Switzerland as a quasi-natural experiment to iden…
The objective of this paper is to evaluate the Brazilian Apprenticeship program adopted at a large scale since 2000. In particular, we investigate whether the program is a better stepping stone to permanent jobs when compared to other forms of temporary jobs. Similar to other apprenticeship initiati…
We investigate gender discrimination in a nationally-representative sample of German firms using a factorial survey design. Short CVs of fictitious applicants for apprenticeship positions are presented to human resource managers who are asked to evaluate the applicants. Women are evaluated worse tha…
This paper proposes a new measurement for the specificity of occupations based on a content analysis of training curricula that we link to labor market demands. We apply Lazear's (2009) skill weights approach and test predictions on labor market outcomes derived from his theory. We find clear eviden…
I estimate the effect of graduating in a recession on the early careers of high-educated vocational and academic graduates in the Netherlands between 1996 and 2012. Exploiting field-specific differences in economic conditions at graduation, I find that academic graduates suffer a 10% lower wage per …
This study analyzes the short-term effects of the minimum wage introduction on firm-provided apprenticeship training in the main construction sector in Germany. While the minimum wage was binding for regular blue-collar workers, apprentices were exempt. The analysis is based on a large administrativ…
Using a randomized trial, we look at employment and earnings of a youth-training program in Brazil that uses arts- and theater-based pedagogic tools. The evidence we present shows youth benefit in the medium-term from economically large employment and earnings impacts. We find no systematic evidence…
