The Value of Early-Career Skills

Christina Langer and Simon Wiederhold ()

No 222, Working Papers from Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE)

Abstract: We develop novel measures of early-career skills that are more detailed, comprehensive, and labor-market-relevant than existing skill proxies. We exploit that skill requirements of apprenticeships in Germany are codified in state-approved, nationally standardized apprenticeship plans. These plans provide more than 13,000 different skills and the exact duration of learning each skill. Following workers over their careers in administrative data, we find that cognitive, social, and digital skills acquired during apprenticeship are highly – yet differently – rewarded. We also document rising returns to digital and social skills since the 1990s, with a more moderate increase in returns to cognitive skills.

Keywords: returns to skills; apprenticeship plans; labor market; earnings; early-career skills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I26 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 68 pages
Date: 2023-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lma and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.bgpe.de/files/2024/04/222_LangerWiederhold.pdf First version, 2023 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Value of Early-Career Skills (2023)
Working Paper: The Value of Early-Career Skills (2023)
Working Paper: The Value of Early-Career Skills (2023)
Working Paper: The Value of Early-Career Skills (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bav:wpaper:222_langerwiederhold

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