The Development of Employers' Training Investments Over Time – A Decomposition Analysis Using German Establishment Data

Using establishment data covering the time period 1997 to 2007, this paper investigates trends of employer-sponsored further training in Germany, with a focus on the share of establishments that undertake training investments. I find an increasing trend for West and East German establishments alike. Applying Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition techniques shows that this increase is unrelated to compositional changes of average establishment characteristics. As the characteristics considered in the analysis represent the most commonly used variables in the literature on the determinants of training, this raises some questions for future research.