Employee training and firm performance: Evidence from ESF grant applications

Pedro Martins

No 23, OECD Productivity Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: As work changes, firm-provided training may become more relevant. However, there is little causal evidence about the effects of training on firms. This paper studies a large training grants programme in Portugal, supported by the European Social Fund, contrasting firms that received the grants and firms that also applied but were unsuccessful. Combining several rich data sets, we compare many potential outcomes of these firms, while following them over several years both before and after the grant decision. Our difference-in-differences models estimate significant positive effects on take up (training hours and expenditure), with limited deadweight; and that such additional training led to increased sales, value added, employment, productivity, and exports (although not profits). These effects tend to be of at least 5% and, in some cases, 10% or more, and are robust in multiple dimensions.

Keywords: productivity; Programme evaluation; Training subsidies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H43 J24 M53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-07-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eff, nep-eur and nep-hrm
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1787/dbbafcc4-en (text/html)

Related works:
Journal Article: Employee training and firm performance: Evidence from ESF grant applications (2021)
Working Paper: Employee Training and Firm Performance: Evidence from ESF Grant Applications (2021)
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:oec:ecoaac:23-en

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in OECD Productivity Working Papers from OECD Publishing Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().