IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cca/wplabo/140.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Training and wages of older workers in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Michele Belloni
  • Claudia Villosio

Abstract

The financial deficits of many social security systems caused by ageing populations and stagnating economies are forcing workers to retire later from the labour market. An extended working life combined with rapid technological progress in many sectors, is likely making older workers’ skills obtained in school obsolete. In this context, lifelong investment in training is widely recognized among the international research and policy community as a key element to increase or at least limit the decline in productivity of older workers. This paper investigates the relationship between training undertaken by European older workers and their wages, relying on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Undertaking training activities is associated with 6.3% higher wages. This premium is sizeable and is similar to that of attaining an upper or post-secondary degree instead of a primary or lower-secondary degree. Training wage premiums are highly heterogeneous across countries: they are highest in Austria, Germany, Greece, and Italy and are about half that in France and Spain. No premium is found for Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Training premiums of the first group of countries can be overestimated due to training endogeneity and sample selection bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Belloni & Claudia Villosio, 2014. "Training and wages of older workers in Europe," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 140, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:cca:wplabo:140
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.laboratoriorevelli.it/_pdf/wp140.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2001. "Continuous training in Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 14(3), pages 523-548.
    2. Mazzonna, Fabrizio & Peracchi, Franco, 2012. "Ageing, cognitive abilities and retirement," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 691-710.
    3. Grit Muehler & Michael Beckmann & Bernd Schauenberg, 2007. "The returns to continuous training in Germany: new evidence from propensity score matching estimators," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 209-235, November.
    4. Christelis, Dimitris & Jappelli, Tullio & Padula, Mario, 2010. "Cognitive abilities and portfolio choice," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 18-38, January.
    5. Pål Schøne, 2004. "Firm-financed training: Firm-specific or general skills?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 885-900, December.
    6. Anne Case & Christina Paxson, 2008. "Stature and Status: Height, Ability, and Labor Market Outcomes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(3), pages 499-532, June.
    7. Leist, Anja K. & Glymour, M. Maria & Mackenbach, Johan P. & van Lenthe, Frank J. & Avendano, Mauricio, 2013. "Time away from work predicts later cognitive function: differences by activity during leave," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51630, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Lang, Julia, 2012. "The aims of lifelong learning: Age-related effects of training on wages and job security," VfS Annual Conference 2012 (Goettingen): New Approaches and Challenges for the Labor Market of the 21st Century 62073, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. repec:pri:indrel:case_paxson_stature_status_8312006 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Julia Lang, 2012. "The Aims of Lifelong Learning: Age-Related Effects of Training on Wages and Job Security," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 478, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    11. repec:pri:indrel:case_paxson_stature_status_8312006.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Anna Ruzik-Sierdzinska & Claudia Villosio & Michele Belloni & Maciej Lis & Monika Potoczna, 2013. "Age and productivity. Human Capital Accumulation and Depreciation," CASE Network Reports 0114, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
    2. Bonsang, Eric & Dohmen, Thomas, 2015. "Risk attitude and cognitive aging," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 112-126.
    3. Lee, Jong-Wha & Kwak, Do Won & Song, Eunbi, 2022. "Can older workers stay productive? The role of ICT skills and training," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. repec:zbw:rwirep:0197 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Vegard Skirbekk & Valeria Bordone & Daniela Weber, 2014. "A cross-country comparison of math achievement at teen age and cognitive performance 40 years later," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 31(4), pages 105-118.
    6. Freise, Diana & Schmitz, Hendrik & Westphal, Matthias, 2022. "Late-career unemployment and cognitive abilities," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    7. Mirco Tonin & Michael Vlassopoulos, 2015. "Are public sector workers different? Cross-European evidence from elderly workers and retirees," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-21, December.
    8. Luis Aranda & Martin Siyaranamual, 2014. "Are Smarter People Better Samaritans? Effect of Cognitive Abilities on Pro-Social Behaviors," Working Papers 2014:06, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    9. Dan A. Black & Lars Skipper & Jeffrey A. Smith & Jeffrey Andrew Smith, 2023. "Firm Training," CESifo Working Paper Series 10268, CESifo.
    10. 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.
    11. Grit Muehler & Michael Beckmann & Bernd Schauenberg, 2007. "The returns to continuous training in Germany: new evidence from propensity score matching estimators," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 209-235, November.
    12. Jappelli, Tullio & Padula, Mario, 2013. "Investment in financial literacy and saving decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2779-2792.
    13. Francesco Cinnirella & Joachim Winter, 2009. "Size Matters! Body Height and Labor Market Discrimination: A Cross-European Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 2733, CESifo.
    14. Görlitz, Katja, 2011. "Continuous training and wages: An empirical analysis using a comparison-group approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 691-701, August.
    15. Gan, Hongwu & Lu, Shengfeng & Lu, Weijie & Niu, Geng & Zhou, Yang, 2023. "Beauty and stock market participation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    16. Bertoni, Marco & Brunello, Giorgio & Rocco, Lorenzo, 2015. "Selection and the age – productivity profile. Evidence from chess players," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 45-58.
    17. Lei, Xiaoyan & Liu, Hong, 2018. "Gender difference in the impact of retirement on cognitive abilities: Evidence from urban China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 1425-1446.
    18. Florence Lebert & Erika Antal, 2016. "Reducing Employment Insecurity," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(4), pages 21582440166, October.
    19. Shu Cai, 2022. "Does social participation improve cognitive abilities of the elderly?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(2), pages 591-619, April.
    20. Bastani, Spencer & Karlsson, Kristina & Kolsrud, Jonas & Waldenström, Daniel, 2024. "The Capital Advantage: Comparing Returns to Ability in the Labor and Capital Markets," Working Papers in Economics and Statistics 1/2024, Linnaeus University, School of Business and Economics, Department of Economics and Statistics.
    21. Siang, Liew & Noor, Zulridah, 2015. "The Impact of Training on the Conditional Wage Distribution in Selected Service Subsectors in Malaysia," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 49(1), pages 37-48.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Older workers; Training; Wages; Cognitive abilities; Sample selection bias; Attrition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • 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

    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:cca:wplabo:140. 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: Giovanni Bert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fccaait.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.