Retaining through training even for older workers

Abstract

This paper investigates whether on-the-job training has an effect on the employability of workers. Using data from the Netherlands we disentangle the true effect of training incidence from the spurious one determined by unobserved individual heterogeneity. We also take into account that there might be feedback from shocks in the employment status to future propensity of receiving firm-provided training. We find that firm-provided training significantly increases future employment prospects. This also holds for older workers, suggesting that firm-provided training may be an important instrument to retain older workers at work. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Training employment human capital older workers

Index Keywords

Employment human capital training heterogeneity Netherlands elderly population

Author Affiliations

Research Foundation - Flanders, Brussels, BRU, Belgium, Universiteit Gent, Ghent, VOV, Belgium, CentER, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands, IZA, Berlin, Germany

CentER, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, IZA, Berlin, Germany, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, London, United Kingdom, CESifo GmbH, Munich, Bayern, Germany

Funding & Acknowledgements

Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, FWO

Data from the European Community Household Panel Survey 1994–2001 are used with the permission of Eurostat (contract ECHP/2010/16). The results and conclusions are those of the authors and not those of Eurostat, the European Commission, or any of the authorities whose data have been used. We acknowledge financial support for this research by Stichting Instituut GAK , through Reflect, the Research Institute for Flexicurity, Labor Market Dynamics and Social Cohesion at Tilburg University. Matteo Picchio acknowledges financial support by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), Belgium . We also wish to thank the participants to the ESEM conference in Oslo (08/2011), to the XXVI National Conference in Labour Economics in Milan (09/2011), and to the EALE conference in Cyprus (09/2011) for their comments and suggestions.

References 10 References

1 Journal of Applied Econometrics

2 Alessie, Rob J.M., Ownership of stocks and mutual funds: A panel data analysis, Review of Economics and Statistics, 86, 3, pp. 783-796, (2004)

3 undefined, (2010)

4 Arellano, Manuel, Some tests of specification for panel data:monte carlo evidence and an application to employment equations, Review of Economic Studies, 58, 2, pp. 277-297, (1991)

5 Arulampalam, Wiji, Training in europe, Journal of the European Economic Association, 2, 2-3, pp. 346-360, (2004)

6 Arulampalam, Wiji, Simplified implementation of the heckman estimator of the dynamic probit model and a comparison with alternative estimators, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 71, 5, pp. 659-681, (2009)

7 Barrett, Alan, Does training generally work? The returns to in-company training, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 54, 3, pp. 647-662, (2001)

8 Bartel, Ann P., Productivity Gains from the Implementation of Employee Training Programs, Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 33, 4, pp. 411-425, (1994)

9 Journal of Labor Economics, (1995)

10 European Economy Special Reports, (2004)

Retaining through training even for older workers

How to Cite