The increased supply of skilled labour and institutional factors have been advanced in an effort to explain why some countries have experienced smaller increases in earnings dispersion and in returns to education relative to the United States. Ireland’s supply of skilled labour has increased...

Higher rates of economic growth in recent years have led Ireland from being a country characterized by emigration to one where population inflows have become an important issue. This paper contains an analysis of one element of the current inflow. Drawing on data collected in 1998 on over 800...

This paper applies the familiar theoretical distinction between general and specific training to the empirical task of estimating the returns to in-company training. Given the theoretical prediction that employees who receive general training are more likely to quit, the productivity effects of...

Increasing earnings inequality has been an important feature of the US and UK labour markets in recent years. The increase appears to be related to an increased demand for skilled labour and an increase in the returns to education. In this paper we examine what has happened to earnings...

The skill levels of immigrants entering the United States has declined in recent decades, but most immigrants to the United States continue to be admitted on the basis of family contacts, without reference to labour market characteristics. This situation has given rise to a debate about the...