Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be

In this paper we use British data to ask whether local employment density- which we take as a proxy of labor market competition- affects employer – provided training. We find that training is less frequent in economically denser areas. We interpret this result as evidence that the balance of poaching and local agglomeration effects on training is negative. The effect of density on training is not negligible: when evaluated at the average firm size in the local area, a 1 percent increase in density reduces the probability of employer – provided training by 0.014, close to 4 percent of the average incidence of this type of training in the UK.

At various political levels, including the OECD and the EU, it is repeatedly emphasized that upgrading the low skilled is an important area for the economic and social development of modern societies. However, employers are typically reluctant to train low skilled, who in their turn are unwilling to participate due to financial constraints or a perception of low quality and/or returns to training. If this is a market imperfection, a possible remedy is suggested by public provision of formal education where enrollees are eligible for financial support. A drawback is that the costs may be large and the economic returns to formal adult education (AE) for low skilled, a crucial measure to assess if expenses should be increased or decreased, is a virtually unexplored issue. This study uses Swedish register data 1990-2004 of low skilled siblings aged 24-43 in 1994 to estimate differencein-difference-in-differences models which include family fixed effects. The findings indicate a year of AE improves earnings by 4.4 per cent, but calculations indicate that the private returns alone only roughly cover the costs incurred by society. It implies that to justify the expenses, non-trivial social returns to AE are needed.

More than one in seven employees in Europe work on temporary contracts associated with lower pay, lower satisfaction and less training. I use workplace-level data from 21 countries and …nd that, in contrast with previous evidence for the US, the e¤ect of unions on the probability that …rms use temporary employment is positive across Europe. To address the endogeneity of union status, I then use a British dataset that enables me to exploit variation over time and across occupations to control for workplace unobserved heterogeneity. The evidence con…rms that unions contribute to creating contract duality in the labour market and thus do not limit the ability of …rms to adjust employment through ‡exible contracts. 1

Trade unions ’ opposition to temporary

Abstract not found

We are grateful to the following institutions for their financial and organizational support: the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) The views expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of the funding organization(s) or of CEPR, which takes no institutional policy positions. DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of the institute. Research disseminated by IZA may include views on policy, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit company supported by Deutsche Post World Net. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its research networks, research support, and visitors and doctoral programs. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. IZA Discussion Paper No. 2932

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. IZA Discussion Paper No. 6818