This paper explores the relationship between graduates’ skill levels and the risk of overeducationand unemployment in 17 European countries. We distinguish between field-specific and generalskills and between two labour market segments, the occupational domain of a particular field ofstudy and...

This paper uses longitudinal test data to analyze the relation between retirement and cognitivedevelopment. Controlling for individual fixed effects, we find that retirees face greater declinesin information processing speed than those who remain employed. However, remarkably, theircognitive...

In this paper, we estimate tenure-performance proles using unique panel data that containdetailed information on individual workers'' performance. We find that a 10 per cent increase intenure leads to an increase in performance of 5.5 per cent of a standard deviation. Thistranslates to an...

As suggested by human capital theory, workers with flexible contracts participate less often intraining than those with permanent contracts. We find that this is merely due to the fact thatflexworkers receive less employer–funded training, a gap they can only partly compensate for bytheir own...

This paper assesses the impact of a dramatic reform of the Dutch pension system on mental health, savings behavior and retirement expectations of workers nearing retirement age. The reform means that public sector workers born on January 1, 1950 or later face a substantial reduction in their...

This paper uses a natural experiment approach to identify the effects of an exogenous change in future pension benefits on workers'' training participation. We use unique matched survey and administrative data for male employees in the Dutch public sector who were born in 1949 or 1950. Only the...

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...

This paper focuses on the question whether it is beneficial for firms to invest in the general skills of their workforce or that these training investments merely encourage personnel turnover. We examine two contrary theoretical perspectives on how investments in employee development are related...

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

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