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Training participation of a firm’s aging workforce

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Abstract

We use a long panel data set for four cohorts of male blue-collar workers entering into an internal labor market to analyze the effect of age on the probability of participating in different employer-financed training measures. We find that training participation probabilities are inverted u-shaped with age and that longer training measures are undertaken earlier in life and working career. These findings are consistent with predictions from a human capital model that incorporates amortization period and screening effects.

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Correspondence to Christian Pfeifer.

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This work was financially supported by the VolkswagenStiftung. We thank Jens Mohrenweiser, Patrick Puhani, participants of the Colloquium in Personnel Economics 2010 in Trier, and two referees of this journal for their comments.

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Pfeifer, C., Janssen, S., Yang, P. et al. Training participation of a firm’s aging workforce. Empirical Res Voc Ed Train 4, 131–147 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03546513

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