There is a rising interest in both skills policy and industrial policy in OECD countries following the economic downturn. But how can skills policy best support industrial growth? In the UK, the coalition government is arguing for an industrial policy which is bottom-up, supporting networks of emplo…
This paper investigates the relationship between the gender wage gap, the choice of training occupation, and occupational mobility. We use longitudinal data for young workers with apprenticeship training in West Germany. Workers make occupational career choices early in their careers and women and m…
The British government's policy towards expanding higher education is based on two beliefs-that it is necessary for an improvement of economic performance, and that it can increase access to better jobs by those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. This article examines these two beliefs. The evid…
A largely unquestioned consensus proclaims that educational policy is an effective tool for delivering prosperity and increasing rates of economic growth. This consensus rests on far less secure foundations than is commonly supposed. International comparisons confirm that, as they become richer, peo…
Geographic clusters of high-technology companies are an increasingly important source of wealth and job creation in the advanced industrial countries. This article provides a framework for understanding the conditions that give rise to these self-sustaining high-skill ecosystems (HSEs) that is based…
Is the celebrated German skills system in peril? Western German employers have cut apprenticeship places since the 1980s, while the institutional supports of the 'high-skill equilibrium' (HSE) analysed by Finegold and Soskice (Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 4(3) 1988) are threatened: the globaliz…
The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) is much the most significant public policy intervention in the UK training market since the 1964 Industrial Training Act (ITA). This paper presents an economic evaluation of YTS. We begin in Part II by outlining the history and mechanics of the Scheme. Part III descri…
