Employment polarization and the role of the apprenticeship system

Michelle Rendall and Franziska Weiss ()

European Economic Review, 2016, vol. 82, issue C, 166-186

Abstract: This paper studies the effect of apprenticeship training on technology adoption and labor market polarization. A stylized model with two key features is developed: (1) apprentices are more productive due to industry-specific training, but (2) from the firm׳s perspective, when training apprentices, technological innovation is costly since training becomes obsolete. Thus, apprentices correlate with slower adoption of skill-replacing technologies, but also less employment polarization. We test this hypothesis on German regions given local variation in apprenticeship systems until 1976. The results show little computer adoption and no employment polarization related to apprentices, but similar displacement of non-apprentices by computers as in the US.

Keywords: Apprentices; Educational system; Employment polarization; Technology adoption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J24 O33 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Employment polarization and the role of the apprenticeship system (2014)
Working Paper: Employment polarization and the role of the apprenticeship system (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:82:y:2016:i:c:p:166-186

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2015.11.004

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