IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/oxecpp/v56y2004i1p88-97.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is wage compression a necessary condition for firm-financed general training?

Author

Listed:
  • Alison L. Booth
  • Gylfi Zoega

Abstract

In recent contributions, Acemoglu and Pischke argue that wage compression induces firms to invest in general training. However, they consider only absolute wage compression. We extend their approach to consider relative wage compression and argue that wage compression as generally understood in the literature is of the latter type. We show that factors associated with an increase in the absolute difference between output and wages might have no effect on the ratio of output and wages (e.g., if the output and wage of every worker doubles, there is absolute wage compression but not relative wage compression). Importantly, we show that, although relative wage compression is not a necessary condition for firms' willingness to pay for general training, it does increase firms' incentives to pay for workers' general training. We show that the departure from the competitive framework highlighted in Acemoglu and Pischke is much more general than implied by their analysis. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Alison L. Booth & Gylfi Zoega, 2004. "Is wage compression a necessary condition for firm-financed general training?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(1), pages 88-97, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:56:y:2004:i:1:p:88-97
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daron Acemoglu & Jorn-Steffen Pischke, 1999. "The Structure of Wages and Investment in General Training," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(3), pages 539-572, June.
    2. repec:eme:rlepps:v:18:y:1999:i:1999:p:303-330 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Acemoglu, Daron & Pischke, Jorn-Steffen, 1999. "Beyond Becker: Training in Imperfect Labour Markets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(453), pages 112-142, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Moretti, Luca & Mayerl, Martin & Mühlemann, Samuel & Schlögl, Peter & Wolter, Stefan C., 2017. "So Similar and Yet So Different: A Comparative Analysis of a Firm's Cost and Benefits of Apprenticeship Training in Austria and Switzerland," IZA Discussion Papers 11081, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Ardiana N. Gashi & Geoff Pugh & Nick Adnett, 2008. "Technological change and employer-provided training: Evidence from German establishments," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0026, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    3. Hans Dietrich & Harald Pfeifer & Felix Wenzelmann, 2016. "The more they spend, the more I earn? Firms' training investments and post-training wages of apprentices," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0116, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    4. Michael Gerfin, 2003. "Work-Related Training and Wages: An empirical analysis for male workers in Switzerland," Diskussionsschriften dp0316, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    5. Pardesi, Mantej, 2024. "Productivity convergence and firm’s training strategy," ROA Research Memorandum 003, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    6. Popov, Alexander, 2014. "Credit constraints and investment in human capital: Training evidence from transition economies," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 76-100.
    7. Caliendo, Marco & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Obst, Cosima & Uhlendorff, Arne, 2023. "Risk preferences and training investments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 668-686.
    8. Bilanakos, Christos, 2013. "Career concerns and firm – sponsored general training," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 117-132.
    9. Samuel Muehlemann & Juerg Schweri & Rainer Winkelmann & Stefan C. Wolter, 2007. "An Empirical Analysis of the Decision to Train Apprentices," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 21(3), pages 419-441, September.
    10. Arnaud Chéron & Anthony Terriau, 2023. "On-The-Job Search, Life-cycle Training, and the Role of Transfer Fees," TEPP Working Paper 2023-06, TEPP.
    11. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/9064 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Bratti, Massimiliano & Conti, Maurizio & Sulis, Giovanni, 2018. "Employment Protection, Temporary Contracts and Firm-Provided Training: Evidence from Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 11339, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Filipe Almeida-Santos & Karen Mumford, 2006. "Employee Training, Wage Dispersion and Equality in Britain," Discussion Papers 06/14, Department of Economics, University of York.
    14. Bassanini, Andrea & Booth, Alison L. & Brunello, Giorgio & De Paola, Maria & Leuven, Edwin, 2005. "Workplace Training in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 1640, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Giorgio Brunello, 2002. "Is Training more Frequent when Wage Compression is Higher? Evidence from 11 European Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series 637, CESifo.
    16. Daron Acemoglu & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2003. "Minimum Wages And On-The-Job Training," Research in Labor Economics, in: Worker Well-Being and Public Policy, pages 159-202, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    17. Benson, Alan, 2013. "Firm-sponsored general education and mobility frictions: Evidence from hospital sponsorship of nursing schools and faculty," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 149-159.
    18. Gersbach, Hans & Schmutzler, Armin, 2005. "The Effects of Globalization on Worker Training," CEPR Discussion Papers 4879, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Luis Garicano & Luis Rayo, 2017. "Relational Knowledge Transfers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2695-2730, September.
    20. Pahnke, André & Icks, Annette & Kay, Rosemarie, 2013. "Übernahme von Auszubildenden: Betriebsgrößenspezifische Analysen," IfM-Materialien 221, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    21. Bassanini, Andrea & Brunello, Giorgio, 2008. "Is training more frequent when the wage premium is smaller? Evidence from the European Community Household Panel," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 272-290, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:56:y:2004:i:1:p:88-97. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/oep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.