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on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Emmanuel Cercek |
| Abstract: | Šoštanj Primary School offers a learning process which can enrich traditional forms of schooling. It demonstrates how a school, including its infrastructure, can influence family life and the environment, creating new social patterns and a local identity. Pupils and teachers are involved in different thematic projects and programmes, together with parents and the wider community. Slovenia’s primary schools At the beginning of the 2005/06 school year, the number of primary schools in Slovenia reached almost 800 (242 independent, 205 government-run and 350 subsidiary schools). Financing for public preschool and primary school infrastructure is shared between local communities (municipalities) and the Ministry of Education and Sport, with government funding ranging from 10 to 70%. Local communities own both the buildings and equipment. |
| Keywords: | sustainable development, community, Slovenia, learning environment, school infrastructure, primary school |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2008/14-en&r=hrm |
| By: | Christoph Bühler (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Dirk Konietzka (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Russia. It compares the process of entering working life during socialism (1966-1990) and the transition period (1991-2005) by utilizing information from 6,455 males and females of the "Education and Employment Survey for Russia". The results document influences both of change and of continuity. The introduction of labor markets and a mismatch between qualifications acquired at school and demanded by employers led to increasing risks of unemployment after education and first jobs at the lower levels of the occupational hierarchy. However, as the general character of the educational system and the internal structures of many firms did not change, traditional paths of mobility from educational degrees to particular occupational positions continued to exist. Thus, the transition from school-to-work in Russia did not experience an abrupt change but a gradual adjustment to the new economic order. |
| Keywords: | Russia, early aduldhood, educational systems, employment, occupational qualifications, transitional society, unemployment |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2008-018&r=hrm |
| By: | Fabio Mariani (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at explaining why countries with comparable levels of education still experience notable differences in terms of R&D and innovation. High-skilled migration, ultimately linked to differences in R&D costs, might be responsible for the persistence of such a gap. In fact, in a model where human capital accumulation and innovation are strategic complements, we show that allowing labor outflows may strengthen educational incentives in the lagging economy if migration is probabilistic in nature, but at the same time reduces the share of innovative production. Income (growth) might be consequently affected, and a positive migration chance is very unlikely to act as a substitute for educational subsidies. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Education; Brain drain. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:paris1:halshs-00308746_v1&r=hrm |
| By: | Regula Geel (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich); Johannes Mure (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich); Uschi Backes-Gellner (Institute for Strategy and Business Economics, University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | According to standard human capital theory firm financed training cannot be explained if skills are of general nature. Nevertheless, investments of firms into general training can be observed and there has been a large literature to explain this puzzle, mostly referring to imperfect labor market issues. In German speaking countries firms invest heavily into apprenticeship training although it is assumed to be general. In our paper, we study the question to what extent apprenticeship training is general at all. Our paper for the first time studies how specificity of training may be defined based on Lazear’s skill-weights approach. In our empirical part we use a unique German Qualification Survey, containing extensive information about the required skills at a workplace. We build occupationspecific skill-weights and find that the more specific the skill portfolio in an occupation is in comparison to the general labor market, the higher are the net costs firms have to bear for apprenticeship training in the respective occupations. At the same time, the more specific the skill requirements are in an occupation, the smaller is the probability of an occupational change during an employee’s entire career. Due to the new definition of occupational specificity, we thus find that apprenticeship training - formerly seen as general training - is very heterogeneous in its specificity. |
| Keywords: | Mobility, Skill-weights, Occupational specificity, Apprenticeship training |
| JEL: | J62 M53 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0038&r=hrm |
| By: | Abbi M. Kedir |
| Abstract: | Using panel data from a developing country on individuals aged 16 to 59 who reported their monthly wages, we estimated a relationship between health (nutrition) measures (i.e. height and BMI) and wages (which proxies productivity/growth). We controlled for endogeneity of BMI and found heterogeneous returns to different human capital indicators. Our findings indicate that productivity is positively and significantly affected by education, height and BMI. The return to BMI is important both at the lower and upper end of the wage distribution for men while women at the upper end of the distribution suffer a wage penalty due to BMI. Height has been a significant factor affecting men’s productivity but not women. The results in general support the high-nutrition and high- productivity equilibrium story. Returns to schooling showed a declining trend as we move from lower to higher quantiles for both sub-samples. This might suggest that schooling is more beneficial for the less able. In addition, the returns to schooling of women are higher than men. The results have important implications for policy making in the form of nutrition interventions and targeted education on women. |
| Keywords: | height; BMI; schooling; heterogeneity; endogeneity; quantile; IV |
| JEL: | C23 I12 J24 O12 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lec:leecon:08/37&r=hrm |
| By: | László Limbacher |
| Abstract: | Hungary’s Belvárosi Tanoda Secondary School offers an informal, flexible environment and alternative teaching methods for students who have had problems in other schools. The Belvárosi Tanoda (which translates as downtown school) is a second chance school for students who have dropped out of upper secondary education. It has been providing alternative education for 16- to 25-year-olds since 1990. While most Hungarian schools are run by their local government, Belvárosi Tanoda is maintained by a private foundation, with the state covering about half of its operating costs. The school charges no tuition fees since most of its students are in financial need. |
| Keywords: | Hungary, secondary schools, school building design, learning environment, educational buildings, school infrastructure |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2008/13-en&r=hrm |
| By: | Christian Dreger; Georg Erber; Daniela Glocker |
| Abstract: | The accumulation of the human capital stock plays a key role to explain the macroeconomic performance across regions. However, despite the strong theoretical support for this claim, empirical evidence has been not very convincing, probably because of the low quality of the data. This paper provides a robustness analysis of alternative measures of human capital available at the level of EU NUTS1 and NUTS2 regions. In addition to the univariate measures, composite indicators based on different construction principles are proposed. The analysis shows a significant impact of construction techniques on the quality of indicators. While composite indicators and labour income measures point to the same direction of impact, their correlation is not overwhelmingly high. Moreover, popular indicators should be applied with caution. Although schooling and human resources in science and technology explain some part of the regional human capital stock, they cannot explain the bulk of the experience. |
| Keywords: | Human capital indicators, SOEP, regional growth |
| JEL: | I20 O30 O40 O52 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp137&r=hrm |
| By: | Henno Theisens; Francisco Benavides; Hanna Dumont |
| Abstract: | Designing school buildings to respond to change is not a new idea. But perhaps what is different today is the kind and degree of change which we have to anticipate. The OECD is carrying out projects that can help in the planning and design of future educational facilities – exploring trends in education and studying innovative learning environments. Education planners have long grappled with the type of change connected with demography, for example changing local patterns in the number of school places needed over a period of time. But new challenges lie in the complexity and uncertainty which are characteristic of the 21st century world. The findings of the OECD’s project “Schooling for Tomorrow: Trends Shaping Education” show some sources of this uncertainty, including falling birth rates, increasing economic globalisation and growing numbers of single parent families. Such issues suggest that policy makers and education providers alike need to address questions about what education is and how it should be delivered. Another OECD project, a study of innovative learning environments, is looking at how schools can respond to changes in the type of teaching and learning that make individuals lifelong learners. Developing individuals as self-directed learners, who are able to acquire expert knowledge in different fields and to change careers, benefits the economy and society generally. Research into learning shows both the importance of allowing students to take control of their own learning and that learning must be a social, cultural, intrapersonal and an active process. Research also demonstrates that an understanding of complex subjects can be best achieved in settings where the learner is engaged with others in the community, in activities where knowledge is being applied. The learning environments that support this must be fundamentally different from what has gone before, with less emphasis on teachers addressing a group of students in a traditional classroom setting. However, just how the physical environment must respond is a complicated issue. To meet the needs of 21st century learning, the physical environment will have to be agile so that it is capable of providing a mixed range of learning settings from large group spaces to smaller, more individual tutorial type spaces. However, the interaction between a building’s users and the physical infrastructure is complex. The physical environment is always a constraint, but a key question might be to what extent does it offer the teachers the freedom and empowerment to do with it what they want. The different learning settings may be facilitated by clever use of furniture which can be easily rearranged in a variety of ways thus providing a range of spaces within spaces. These are all issues that future work of the Programme on Educational Building will explore further, building on the current OECD work on innovative learning environments. |
| Keywords: | innovation, technology and innovation, school building design, educational buildings, educational architecture |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2008/11-en&r=hrm |
| By: | Guillaume Destré (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I); Louis Lévy-Garboua (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Michel Sollogoub (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | A model of informal training which combines learning from own experience and learning from others is proposed in this paper. It yields a closed-form solution that revises Mincer–Jovanovic's [Mincer, J., Jovanovic, B., 1981. Labor mobility and wages. In: Rosen, S. (Ed.), Studies in Labor Markets. Chicago University Press, Chicago, pp. 21–64] treatment of tenure in the human capital earnings function. We estimate the structural parameters of this non-linear model on a large French cross-section with matched employer–employee data. We find that workers on average can learn from others 10% of their own human capital on entering one plant, and catch half of their learning from others’ potential in just 2 years. The private marginal returns to education are declining with education as more educated workers have less to learn from others and share the social returns of their own education with their less qualified co-workers. The potential for learning from others on the job varies across jobs and establishments, and this provides a new distinction between imitation jobs and experience jobs. Workers in imitation jobs, who learn most from others, tend to have considerably longer tenure than workers in experience jobs. Although workers in experience jobs can learn little from others, we find that they learn a lot by themselves. We document several analogies between the imitation jobs/experience jobs “dualism” and the primary/secondary jobs and firms’ dualism implied by the dual labor market theory. However, our binary classification of jobs depicts the data more closely than the dual theory categorization into primary-type and secondary-type establishments. Competition prevails between jobs and firms but jobs differ by their learning technology. |
| Keywords: | Human capital earnings functions; Matched employer–employee data; Informal training; Learning from others; Learning from experience; Returns to tenure; Social returns of education; Labor market dualism |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:paris1:halshs-00304283_v1&r=hrm |
| By: | Ernest Miguélez (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Rosina Moreno (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Manuel Artís (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we seek to verify the hypothesis that trust and cooperation between individuals, and between them and public institutions, can encourage technological innovation and the adoption of knowledge. Additionally, we test the extent to which the interaction of social capital with human capital and R&D expenditures improve their effect on a region’s ability to innovate. Our empirical evidence is taken from the Spanish regions and employs a knowledge production function and longitudinal count data models. Our results suggest that social capital correlates positively with innovation. Further, our analysis reveals a powerful interaction between human and social capital in the production of knowledge, whilst the complementarity with R&D efforts would seem less clear. |
| Keywords: | social capital, human capital, innovation, complementarities. |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:200813&r=hrm |
| By: | Benjamin Balsmeier; Heiko Peters |
| Abstract: | It is becoming more and more important to be highly skilled in order to integrate successfully into the labor market. Highly skilled workers receive higher wages and face a lower risk of becoming unemployed, compared to poorly qualified workers. We analyze the determinants of successful high school graduation in Germany. As our main database, we use the youth file of GSOEP for the period extending from 2000 to 2007. Because the decision as to which secondary school track to attend - general school (Hauptschule), intermediate school (Realschule) or high school (Gymnasium) - is made after the end of elementary school (Grundschule) at age of ten, parents are responsible for this decision. Therefore, the characteristics of the child as well as those of its parents are the main determinants of educational attainment. We also include the characteristics of grandparents in our regression framework, something which has not been done in any previous study so far. In order to disentangle the determinants of successful graduation at high school, we use the Cox proportional hazard model. We find markedly different determinants of successful graduation for males and females. Furthermore, the results indicate a strong linkage between mothers and daughters, as well as between fathers and sons. |
| Keywords: | high school graduation, Cox proportional hazard model, Germany |
| JEL: | A21 C41 I21 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp138&r=hrm |
| By: | Stefan Bender; Michael Fertig; Katja Görlitz; Martina Huber; Alexandra Schmucker |
| Abstract: | This paper explains the main features of an innovative linked employer-employee data set with a particular focus on continuous training in Germany, calledWeLL. The data set comprises establishment data that can be linked to longitudinal information on the associated employees. The employer survey and the first wave of the employee survey were conducted in 2007. Both surveys focus on the collection of training information together with a variety of employee and employer background characteristics. In addition, it is possible to link these data with other survey and administrative data for a large number of respondents. |
| Keywords: | Employee training, establishment data, linked employer-employee data |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0067&r=hrm |
| By: | Mieke Meurs; Juna Miluka; Thomas Hertz |
| Abstract: | In some post-socialist countries, the post-socialist economic downturn had a negative impact on human development indicators. Education is one area of concern. In this paper, we examine secondary schooling dynamics in Albania, where enrollment declines have occurred. Drawing on the existing literature on household investment in schooling, we examine factors underlying the recent changes. We find that, as in other counties, parental education has a significant impact on the choice to attend secondary school. But we also find that factors specifically related to transition, including household economic resources, local employment prospects, opportunity costs of children’s time, and access to school are significant predictors of schooling decisions in Albania. These findings suggest a number of areas where policy interventions may positively affect long-term outcomes. |
| JEL: | P36 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:1308&r=hrm |
| By: | Torge Middendorf |
| Abstract: | We use the European Community Household Panel, a harmonized data set covering the countries of the European Union, to provide detailed estimates of the returns to education. Our results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, average returns to education have been mostly stable during the second half of the 1990s and are highest in Portugal and Ireland and lowest in the UK and Italy. Secondly, returns to schooling are significantly negatively related to the educational attainment of the population. Thirdly, for most countries we find significant cohort effects and these are in general uniform across countries implying lower returns to education for younger cohorts. Fourthly, in most countries schooling exerts a significantly stronger impact on wages at the top of the wage distribution, aggravating within-group inequality. Finally, we provide evidence that the more pronounced the difference in returns to education along the wage distribution, the higher the average return to education. |
| Keywords: | Returns to schooling, cohort effects, quantile regression |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0065&r=hrm |
| By: | Gerda R. Neyer (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Jan M. Hoem (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | In this research note we extend our previous study of the association between educational attainment and permanent childlessness in Sweden (Hoem et al., 2006) to cover Austria, and we make comparisons between the two countries. In both investigations we have defined educational attainment in terms of both educational level and educational field. We find largely the same pattern of childlessness by educational field in both countries; in particular at each educational level women educated for teaching jobs or for health occupations typically have lower childlessness than other lines of education. However, for most groups childlessness is higher in Austria, and for academic educations it is much higher. We attribute these differences to institutional differences in the two countries which may bring about a different culture of reproductive behavior. |
| Keywords: | Austria, education, fertility |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2008-007&r=hrm |
| By: | Bénédicte Gendron (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, LIRDEF - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire de recherche en didactique et formation - IUFM de Montpellier) |
| Abstract: | The creation of the vocational baccalauréat track in 1985 contributed to a main innovation in the French initial secondary education system. In its objective and in its innovative way of learning combining sandwich courses (work and school places learning), this program offer students who were at school in a failure situation a path for continuing their studies or a springboard to jump into a new career or professional plan. This diploma has been implemented in different ways: through student status or in apprenticeships, and through the responsibility of the Ministry of Education in vocational high schools but also, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture like in the Maisons Familiales Rurales (MFR). First, this paper will present the institutional framework: what is the Vocational Baccalauréat (VETBac) diploma, its roles and purposes? And as the national French system of education from the Ministry of education has been the subjects of number of articles in European VET reviews (Gendron, 2005), it will be presented more in details the MFR system less known and its philosophy. The second part, briefly developed here, will give some views of the convergence and divergence of the conditions of competence development of vocational baccalauréat trainees or students with a workplace learning focus in those two previous organizations. |
| Keywords: | Key words : vocational education and training, competencies development, apprenticeship, workplace learning. |
| Date: | 2008–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:paris1:halshs-00264800_v1&r=hrm |