In this empirical paper, I use the 1996 wave of the ECHP dataset to investigate the relationship between measures of wage compression and training incidence in 11 European countries. I find that, after controlling for individual factors and country specific institutional differences, there is...

This study investigates the extent of labour market competition among nativeDutch workers and ethnicminorities, using national survey of the SEO and the Population statistics ofthe CBS. Firstly, the directeffect of immigrants on local labour markets is considered. It is shown thatethnic...

This note tests whether the extraordinary rise in Spanish unemployment in the 1980s can be traced back to rigidities in the wage structure in the face of relative net demand shocks against the unskilled (this claim is also known as the 'Krugman hypothesis'). I can establish that youth...

This paper uses panel data and econometric methods to estimate the incidence and the dynamic properties of overskilling among employed individuals. The paper begins by asking whether there is extensive overskilling in the labour market, and whether overskilling differs by education pathway. The...

Despite seven years of economic growth a large gap exists in the wages earned by workers at the top of the earnings scale and those at the bottom. The leading explanation for this growth in wage inequality continues to be the skills-mismatch theory. This theory in part posits that gains in...

We provide a new explanation for why firms pay for general training in a competitive labor market. If firms are unable to tailor individual wages to ability, for informational or institutional reasons, they will pay for general training in order to attract better quality workers. The market...