Why do Firms Train Apprentices? The Net Cost Puzzle Reconsidered

This paper analyses the impact of replacing unskilled or semi-skilled employees by apprentices on establishment performance. We use representative matched employer-employee panel data and correct for different sources of estimation biases. We show that an increase of the proportion of apprentices in trade, commercial, craft or construction occupations has a positive impact on firm performance. In contrast, companies that increase the share of apprentices in manufacturing occupations face a negative impact on performance, however. These results shed a new light on the popular stylised fact that apprenticeship training always leads to net costs during the apprenticeship period: we argue that firms only hire apprentices at a cost if their skills are relatively specific, their retention rate is high and skilled employees are hard to hire.