This paper analyses the impact of replacing unskilled or semi-skilled employees by apprentices on establishment performance. We use representative matched employer–employee panel data and correct for different sources of estimation biases. We show that an increase of the proportion of...

In the theoretical literature on why companies train apprentices three different approaches are usually distinguished: the investment, the substitution and the reputation motive. The aim of our paper is to empirically identify whether a company follows one or the other motive or even more than...

Das Betriebsverfassungsgesetz (BetrVG) ermöglicht in Betrieben mit mehr als 200 Mitarbeitern die vollständige Freistellung eines Mitgliedes des Betriebsrates. Dieses Papier analysiert, wie die im BetrVG vorgesehene Freistellung eines Betriebsratsmitgliedes tatsächlich in Betrieben umgesetzt...

This paper demonstrates that the share of apprentices exhibits a relatively strong seasonal pattern. This means that statistics on the share of apprentices such as those presented in official publications differ substantially from the actual yearly mean if they are measured on a date close to...

This paper investigates the short-term costs and benefits of apprenticeship training in Germany. It calls into question the popular stylised fact that apprenticeship training always leads to net costs during the apprenticeship period. We analyse the impact of the proportion of different...

The paper assess the potential free-riding of non-training firms on the training efforts of training firms and analyses differences in recruitment of apprenticeship graduates trained elsewhere between training and non-training firms. The paper shows that only 5.6 per cent of non-training firms...

The German Codetermination Law grants workers of establishments with 200 or more employees the right to have a works councillor fully exempted from his regular job while still being paid his regular salary. We analyze theoretically and empirically how this de jure right to paid leave of absence...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to derive an empirical method to identify different types of training strategies of companies based on publicly available company data. Design/methodology/approach – Using a ten-year panel, the within-firm retention rate, defined as the average...

This paper analyses the impact of increasing the share of apprentices at the cost of the share of unskilled or semi-skilled employees on establishment performance. We use representative matched employer-employee panel data and correct for estimation biases. We show that an increase of the...