Several studies document the fact that low-educated workers participate less often infurther training than high-educated workers. The economic literature suggests thatthere is no significant difference in employer willingness to train low-educated workers,which leaves the question of why the low...

Th is paper focuses on the question whether it is benefi cial for fi rms to invest inthe general skills of their workforce or that these training investments merelyencourage personnel turnover. We examine two contrary theoretical perspectives onhow investments in employee development are related...

As suggested by human capital theory, workers with flexible contracts participate lessoften in training than those with permanent contracts. We find that this is merely dueto the fact that flexworkers receive less employer–funded training, a gap they can onlypartly compensate for by their own...

This paper analyzes whether part-time employment is beneficial for firm productivityin the service sector. Using a unique dataset on the Dutch pharmacy sectorthat includes the work hours of all employees and a “hard” physical measure offirm productivity, we estimate a production function...

In public policy, international migration of scientists and engineers is often seen as achance of recruiting the most talented and productive workers. However, it can alsobe a risk in terms of loosing a country’s talented workers. In this paper, we analysemigration of graduates from science...

Previous research has pointed to the existence of hours constraints on the labour market: not all employees’ preferences with respect to the length of the working week seem to be fulfilled, and changes in the number of working hours often coincide with job mobility. In this paper, we test...

This paper greatly enriches the discussion on the determinants of lifelong learning of scientists and engineers (S&Es). In our analysis, which is based on a survey among S&Es in the Netherlands, we take account of both formal training and different modes of informal learning. We find that S&Es...

We analyze whether technological change induces skill obsolescence and early labor market exit, and to what extent lifelong learning reduces these risks. Using panel data on older workers, we find that workers report skill obsolescence more often in jobs in which learning is a structural...

This paper uses longitudinal test data to analyze the relation between retirement andcognitive development. Controlling for individual fixed effects, we find that retirees facegreater declines in information processing speed than those who remain employed.However, remarkably, their cognitive...

We document the importance of negatively reciprocal inclinations in labor relationshipsby showing that a retrenchment of pension rights, which is perceived as unfair,causes a larger reduction in job motivation the stronger workers’ negatively reciprocalinclinations are. We exploit unique...