Studies examining the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programs present findings that are mixed and sometimes at odds, in part due to research design, data, and methodological limitations of the studies. We aim to substantially improve on past approaches to estimate program effectiveness by...

Welfare reform has transformed the U.S. cash assistance program for single parents and their children. Although there remains substantial uncertainty about the importance of reform in producing the subsequent decline in the welfare caseload, even less is known about its impact on the experiences...

This paper uses administrative data from Missouri to examine the sensitivity of job training program impact estimates based on alternative nonexperimental methods. In addition to simple regression adjustment, we consider Mahalanobis distance matching and a variety of methods using propensity...

This paper uses regional variation in labor markets, the industry structure and the education system to explain the training decisions of firms. Using a representative firmlevel data set, the results show that firms are less likely to provide training if the number of competing firms situated in...

The Swiss mass apprenticeship system is market based. The share of training firms as a percentage of all firms is therefore an indicator which receives much public attention. The share of training firms declined markedly from 1985 to 2001, dropping from 24.7 to 17.6%. This has often been...

This paper adopts an economic perspective for an investigation of the correlation between cost-benefit aspects and company decisions regarding training. A differentiation is drawn between the basic decision about whether a company should provide its own training and the stipulation of the number...

The German dual apprenticeship system has come under pressure in recent years because enterprises have not been willing to provide a sufficient number of apprenticeship positions. An argument that is frequently put forward is that the gap could be closed if more firms were willing to incur net...

The article deals with the impact of uncertainty as regards the retention of trainees completing vocational training programmes on firms' training behaviour. As an alternative to vocational training, the external recruitment of skilled workers is considered via an opportunity costs approach. The...

Whilst in applied empirical research, training in general human capital is mainly explained by structural characteristics of firms, this paper introduces business expectations as an additional explanatory factor. Business expectations are strictly time-variate and firm-specific and reflect both...