EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Why Do Temporary Help Firms Provide Free General Skills Training?

David Autor

The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2001, vol. 116, issue 4, 1409-1448

Abstract: The majority of U. S. temporary help supply (THS) firms offer nominally free, unrestricted computer skills training, a practice inconsistent with the competitive model of training. I propose and test a model in which firms offer general training to induce self-selection and perform screening of worker ability. The model implies, and the data confirm, that firms providing training attract higher ability workers yet pay them lower wages after training. Thus, beyond providing spot market labor, THS firms sell information about worker quality to their clients. The rapid growth of THS employment suggests that demand for worker screening is rising.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (292)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1162/003355301753265615 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Why Do Temporary Help Firms Provide Free General Skills Training? (2000) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:116:y:2001:i:4:p:1409-1448.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Quarterly Journal of Economics is currently edited by Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Katz, Nathan Nunn, Andrei Shleifer and Stefanie Stantcheva

More articles in The Quarterly Journal of Economics from President and Fellows of Harvard College
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-22
Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:116:y:2001:i:4:p:1409-1448.