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Income Effects from Labor Market Training Programs in Sweden During the 80’s and 90’s

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  • Andrén, Thomas

    (Department of Economics, School of Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University)

  • Gustafsson, Björn

    (Department of Social Work, Göteborg University)

Abstract

Swedish labor market programs appear large from an international perspective, yet their consequences are not fully investigated and understood. In this paper we estimate a switching regression model with training effect modeled as a random coefficient, partitioned in an observed and unobserved component. We investigate labor market training for three cohorts during the 80s and the beginning of the 90s on its effect on earnings. We separate the analysis between Swedish-born and foreign-born individuals to identify differences in their responses to training. The results indicate that there is positive sorting into training. We find that the proportion of trainees having positive rewards from training was not very different from the proportion having negative rewards. This means that the results do not support the view that from efficiency considerations, too few persons were enrolled in labor market training during this period. Differences in results across cohorts can be interpreted as being caused by rapid changes in the labor market. Further, consistent with results from several previous studies we find that being young often means no positive pay-off from training, and the same is found for persons with only primary education. In conflict with what earlier studies have shown, we found that males have a better pay-off from training than females. Rewards from training were higher for foreign-born than for natives and rewards among the former vary by place of birth.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrén, Thomas & Gustafsson, Björn, 2002. "Income Effects from Labor Market Training Programs in Sweden During the 80’s and 90’s," Working Papers in Economics 81, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0081
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Huzeyfe Torun & Semih Tumen, 2019. "Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(8), pages 1364-1388, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    labor market training; non-experimental estimator; positive sorting; unobserved heterogeneity to training reward; random coefficient model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

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