Should Firms Be Required to Pay for Vocational Training?

Failure in the training market may result from credit constraints and other capital market imperfections, deterring potential trainees, or labour market imperfections creating external benefits for firms. This paper presents a model of a training market affected by both problems, and examines their impact, and the impact of various policy measures, on the welfare of workers and firms. It is shown that there is a rationale for imposing training costs on firms, irrespective of the cause of under-investment. However, training levy schemes in which the levy depends upon the wage bill are shown to address capital market imperfections only.