Why do economic and political institutions differ across countries and how do they change over time? I investigate this puzzle by studying collective skill formation in Switzerland. I investigate two fields in vocational training which both face the challenge to adapt to rising skill demands in...

This paper presents for the first time panel evidence on the productivity effects of training intensity and different training forms in Germany. It hereby takes account of selectivity of training activities, unobserved heterogeneity of establishments as well as omitted variable bias. Using the...

We evaluate the effects of different short-term training programs on the employment chances of immigrant and native welfare recipients in Germany. In particular, we investigate whether program effects differ between both groups and what might cause these potential differences. In a first step,...

Durch die Einführung des Systems des so genannten „Bildungsgutscheins“ hat sich die Leistungserbringung der budgetmäßig wichtigsten Maßnahme der aktiven Arbeitsmarktpolitik seit dem 1. Januar 2003 grundlegend verändert. Wie ist das neue Instrument der Arbeitsmarktpolitik ausgestaltet...

This paper develops a theoretical analysis of training regimes as outcomes of a complementarity between organizational and institutional factors that determine firms' and workers' incentives as regards skills. Specifically, the paper proposes that, on the one hand, knowledge embeddedness within...