Summary This paper analyses the skill supply consequences of skill biased technological change. In a simple microeconomic model it is shown that higher skill wage mark-ups as well as higher relative unskilled unemployment - frequently attributed to skill biased technological change - induce...

Summary This paper analyses the risk of unemployment, unemployment duration, and the risk of longterm unemployment immediately after apprenticeship graduation. Unemployed apprenticeship graduates constitute a large share of unemployed youth in Germany but unemployment incidence within this group...

This paper shows that employee resistance against innovations can be explained by the sunk costs nature of human capital investments induced by innovations. Therefore, internal resistance against innovations is more likely if it is uncertain that the employees can reap the benefits of these...

This paper analyses why in Germany and The Netherlands the share of apprentices in the business service sector is lower than in other economic sectors. A theoretical introduction surveys the potential reasons that could be responsible for this. The subsequent empirical analysis shows that the...

Purpose – Employees older than 55 years of age have a much lower share in training than other employees. The purpose of this paper is to propose that one of the reasons for this phenomenon that has not been taken into account so far is that their training is less effective....

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze the leadership role of first‐line managers in self‐managed production units, particularly the existence, relevance and closability of competence gaps. Design/methodology/approach – Self‐assessments on competence and other variables shed light on the...