Vocational Education, Manufacturing, and Income Distribution: International Evidence and Case Studies

Joshua Aizenman, Yothin Jinjarak, Nam Ngo and Ilan Noy

No 23950, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Economic integration has brought about not only benefits and opportunities but also required adjustment, especially for the youth entering the labour force. The lower growth rates characterizing the post Global Financial Crisis era and the concerns about income inequality put to the fore the degree that better targeted investment in human capital may ameliorate the challenges facing the working poor. Using cross-country data, we find the association between the income shares of the working poor, dependence on manufacturing sector, and the availability of vocational education. Conditioning on tertiary educational attainment, improved access to better vocational education will probably contribute more than large increase in regular college attainment. Comparing the US to Germany suggests that pushing more students to BA granting colleges may no longer be the most efficient way to deal with the challenges caused by the decline in manufacturing employment affecting in particular lower-income households. We also note that a tracking of technical training and educational budget, shown in the case of Vietnam in comparison to Thailand, as well as government subsidies for reskilling of labour fource throughout their career in Singapore, is a potential explanation for their relative manufacturing competitiveness.

JEL-codes: F15 F21 F4 F41 F43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-opm and nep-sea
Note: IFM
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Joshua Aizenman & Yothin Jinjarak & Nam Ngo & Ilan Noy, 2018. "Vocational Education, Manufacturing, and Income Distribution: International Evidence and Case Studies," Open Economies Review, vol 29(3), pages 641-664.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23950.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Vocational Education, Manufacturing, and Income Distribution: International Evidence and Case Studies (2018)
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:nbr:nberwo:23950

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23950

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().