IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/488.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Employee Training and Firm Performance: Quasi-experimental evidence from the European Social Fund

Author

Listed:
  • Martins, Pedro S.

Abstract

As work changes, firm-provided training may become more relevant for good economic and social outcomes. However, so far there is little or no causal evidence about the effects of training on firms. This paper studies a large training grants programme in Portugal, contrasting successful firms that received the grants and unsuccessful firms that did not. Combining several rich data sets, we compare a large number of potential outcomes of these firms, while following them over long periods of time before and after the grant decision. Our difference-in-differences models estimate significant positive effects on take up (training hours and expenditure), with limited deadweight; and that such additional training led to increased sales, value added, employment, productivity, and exports. These effects tend to be of at least 5% and, in some cases, 10% or more.

Suggested Citation

  • Martins, Pedro S., 2020. "Employee Training and Firm Performance: Quasi-experimental evidence from the European Social Fund," GLO Discussion Paper Series 488, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:488
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/214815/1/GLO-DP-0488.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1351-1408.
    2. Michael Lechner & Conny Wunsch, 2009. "Are Training Programs More Effective When Unemployment Is High?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(4), pages 653-692, October.
    3. Schwerdt, Guido & Messer, Dolores & Woessmann, Ludger & Wolter, Stefan C., 2012. "The impact of an adult education voucher program: Evidence from a randomized field experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(7-8), pages 569-583.
    4. David Card & Jochen Kluve & Andrea Weber, 2010. "Active Labour Market Policy Evaluations: A Meta-Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(548), pages 452-477, November.
    5. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/6596a4s9af8lt872jnqvm5jg73 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Pierre Cahuc & Francis Kramarz & Sandra Nevoux, 2018. "When Short-Time Work Works," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03393127, HAL.
    7. Pedro S. Martins, 2009. "Dismissals for Cause: The Difference That Just Eight Paragraphs Can Make," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(2), pages 257-279, April.
    8. Edwin Leuven & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2008. "An alternative approach to estimate the wage returns to private-sector training," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(4), pages 423-434.
    9. Alan Barrett & Philip J. O'Connell, 2001. "Does Training Generally Work? The Returns to in-Company Training," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(3), pages 647-662, April.
    10. Laura Abramovsky & Erich Battistin & Emla Fitzsimons & Alissa Goodman & Helen Simpson, 2011. "Providing Employers with Incentives to Train Low-SkilledWorkers: Evidence from the UK Employer Training Pilots," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 153-193, January.
    11. Brunello, Giorgio & Wruuck, Patricia, 2020. "Employer provided training in Europe: Determinants and obstacles," EIB Working Papers 2020/03, European Investment Bank (EIB).
    12. Elizabeth Lyons, 2020. "The impact of job training on temporary worker performance: Field experimental evidence from insurance sales agents," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 122-146, January.
    13. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6596a4s9af8lt872jnqvm5jg73 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Pedro Silva Martins, 2019. "The Microeconomic Impacts of Employee Representatives: Evidence from Membership Thresholds," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 591-622, October.
    16. Brunello, Giorgio & Comi, Simona Lorena & Sonedda, Daniela, 2012. "Training subsidies and the wage returns to continuing vocational training," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 361-372.
    17. Sascha O. Becker & Peter H. Egger & Maximilian von Ehrlich, 2013. "Absorptive Capacity and the Growth and Investment Effects of Regional Transfers: A Regression Discontinuity Design with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 29-77, November.
    18. Harry J. Holzer & Richard N. Block & Marcus Cheatham & Jack H. Knott, 1993. "Are Training Subsidies for Firms Effective? The Michigan Experience," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 46(4), pages 625-636, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martins, Pedro S., 2020. "What Do Employers' Associations Do?," IZA Discussion Papers 13705, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Brunello, Giorgio & Gereben, Áron & Weiss, Christoph T. & Wruuck, Patricia, 2020. "Financing Constraints and Employers' Investment in Training," IZA Discussion Papers 13067, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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. Martins, Pedro S., 2021. "Employee training and firm performance: Evidence from ESF grant applications," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Dan A. Black & Lars Skipper & Jeffrey A. Smith & Jeffrey Andrew Smith, 2023. "Firm Training," CESifo Working Paper Series 10268, CESifo.
    3. repec:zbw:rwirep:0553 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Gerard J. van den Berg & Christine Dauth & Pia Homrighausen & Gesine Stephan, 2023. "Informing employees in small and medium‐sized firms about training: Results of a randomized field experiment," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(1), pages 162-178, January.
    5. Görlitz, Katja & Tamm, Marcus, 2016. "The returns to voucher-financed training on wages, employment and job tasks," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 51-62.
    6. Görlitz, Katja & Tamm, Marcus, 2015. "The Pecuniary and Non-pecuniary Returns to Voucher-financed Training," Ruhr Economic Papers 553, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    7. Floreani, Vincent Arthur, 2014. "Fixing Europe's youth unemployment and skills mismatch, can public financial support to SMEs be effective? The case of the European Commission and European Investment Bank joint initiatives," MPRA Paper 55849, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Balmaceda, Felipe, 2021. "A failure of the market for college education and on-the-job human capital," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Katja Görlitz & Marcus Tamm, 2015. "The Pecuniary and Non-pecuniary Returns to Voucher-financed Training," Ruhr Economic Papers 0553, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    10. Guo, Yuchen Mo & Falck, Oliver & Langer, Christina & Lindlacher, Valentin & Wiederhold, Simon, 2024. "Training, Automation, and Wages: Worker-Level Evidence," VfS Annual Conference 2024 (Berlin): Upcoming Labor Market Challenges 302366, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Schwerdt, Guido & Messer, Dolores & Woessmann, Ludger & Wolter, Stefan C., 2012. "The impact of an adult education voucher program: Evidence from a randomized field experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(7-8), pages 569-583.
    12. Stefan Denzler & Jens Ruhose & Stefan C. Wolter, 2022. ""The Double Dividend of Training" - Labor Market Effects of Work-Related Continuous Education in Switzerland," CESifo Working Paper Series 10009, CESifo.
    13. Kugler Franziska & Schwerdt Guido & Wößmann Ludger, 2014. "Ökonometrische Methoden zur Evaluierung kausaler Effekte der Wirtschaftspolitik," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 105-132, June.
    14. Dauth, Christine, 2017. "Regional discontinuities and the effectiveness of further training subsidies for low-skilled employees," IAB-Discussion Paper 201707, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    15. Hara, Hiromi, 2019. "The impact of worker-financed training: Evidence from early- and mid-career workers in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 64-75.
    16. Chakravarty, Shubha & Lundberg, Mattias & Nikolov, Plamen & Zenker, Juliane, 2019. "Vocational training programs and youth labor market outcomes: Evidence from Nepal," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 71-110.
    17. Verónica Alaimo & Mariano Bosch & David S. Kaplan & Carmen Pagés & Laura Ripani, 2015. "Jobs for Growth," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 90977, February.
    18. Anders Stenberg & Xavier Luna & Olle Westerlund, 2014. "Does Formal Education for Older Workers Increase Earnings? — Evidence Based on Rich Data and Long-term Follow-up," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 28(2), pages 163-189, June.
    19. Dauth, Christine, 2016. "Do low-skilled employed workers benefit from further training subsidies?," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145533, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    20. Van den Berge, Wiljan & Jongen, Egbert L. W. & van der Wiel, Karen, 2017. "Using Tax Deductions to Promote Lifelong Learning: Real and Shifting Responses," IZA Discussion Papers 10885, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Pelucha, Martin & Kveton, Viktor & Potluka, Oto, 2019. "Using mixed method approach in measuring effects of training in firms: Case study of the European Social Fund support," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 146-155.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Training subsidies; Productivity; Counterfactual evaluation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate
    • M53 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Training

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:glodps:488. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.html .

    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.