Zusammenfassung: This dissertation includes four studies in the field of empirical labour economics with a focus on risk in labour markets. In Chapter 1 the effect of an employment subsidy programme on early apprenticeship dropout is evaluated. The programme can be considered a preventive...

The human capital century -- Inequality across the twentieth century -- Skill-biased technological change -- Origins of the virtues -- Economic foundations of the high school movement -- America's graduation from high school -- Mass higher education in the twentieth century -- The race between...

Estimates of the effect of education on GDP (the social return) have been hard to reconcile with micro evidence on the private return to schooling. We present a simple explanation combining two ideas: imperfect substitution and endogenous skill-biased technological progress and use cross-country...