Employment polarization and the role of the apprenticeship system

Arbeitspapier

This paper studies the effects of the apprenticeship system on innovation 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 skillreplacing technologies, but also less employment polarization. We test this hypothesis on German regions given local variation in apprenticeship systems until 1976. The results shows no employment polarization related to apprentices, but similar displacement of non-apprentices as in the US.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 141

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity ; Education and Inequality ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion ; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
• Subject: Apprentices ; educational system ; employment polarization ; technology adoption

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Rendall, Michelle ; Weiss, Franziska J.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Zurich, Department of Economics
• (where): Zurich
• (when): 2014

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.5167/uzh-93292
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/111198
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET