IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kob/dpaper/dp2026-11.html

The Effects of Training under the Employment Adjustment Subsidy during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Yudai Higashi

    (Faculty of Economics, Kyoto Sangyo University and Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN)

  • Masaru Sasaki

    (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University, JAPAN and Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), GERMANY)

Abstract

In Japan, many establishments adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have received an Employment Adjustment Subsidy (EAS) to maintain employment. Beyond subsidizing temporary leave allowances, the EAS also includes a scheme that subsidizes employee training provided by establishments. Using establishment-level administrative data, this study examines the characteristics of establishments providing EAS-supported training to their employees and evaluates its effects on the probability of establishment closure, employment flows, and business activity levels during the pandemic. The results indicate that establishments with workforce compositions and industry affiliations linked with higher expected returns to human capital investment are more likely to provide EAS-supported training. Furthermore, the EAS-supported training provided early during the pandemic reduced the probability of establishment closures. Although this training temporarily increased the hiring rate during the EAS receipt period, this effect did not persist once receipt ended. There is no evidence that EAS-supported training reduced job separation rates or improved subjective business activity levels. Overall, the effects of EAS-supported training appear limited.

Suggested Citation

  • Yudai Higashi & Masaru Sasaki, 2026. "The Effects of Training under the Employment Adjustment Subsidy during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Japan," Discussion Paper Series DP2026-11, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    • Handle: RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2026-11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp/academic/ra/dp/English/DP2026-11.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2026
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2016. "Matching on the Estimated Propensity Score," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 781-807, March.
    2. Kapinos, Pavel, 2021. "Did the Paycheck Protection Program have negative side effects on small-business activity?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    3. Isamu YAMAMOTO & Sachiko KURODA, 2016. "The Effect of Labor Turnover on Firm Performance among Japanese Firms (Japanese)," Discussion Papers (Japanese) 16062, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    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. Zhipeng Tang & Ziao Mei & Jialing Zou, 2021. "Does the Opening of High-Speed Railway Lines Reduce the Carbon Intensity of China’s Resource-Based Cities?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, July.
    2. Ghisetti, Claudia, 2017. "Demand-pull and environmental innovations: Estimating the effects of innovative public procurement," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 178-187.
    3. Fan, Xiaomin & Xu, Yingzhi, 2023. "Does high-speed railway promote urban innovation? Evidence from China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Hünermund, Paul & Czarnitzki, Dirk, 2019. "Estimating the causal effect of R&D subsidies in a pan-European program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 115-124.
    5. Anabela Santos & Michele Cincera & Paulo Neto & Maria Manuel Serrano, 2019. "How internationalization and competitiveness contribute to get public support to innovation? The Portuguese case," GEE Papers 0121, Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia, revised May 2019.
    6. Li Liang & Greene Tom, 2013. "A Weighting Analogue to Pair Matching in Propensity Score Analysis," The International Journal of Biostatistics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 215-234, July.
    7. Andr'es Ram'irez-Hassan & Raquel Vargas-Correa & Gustavo Garc'ia & Daniel Londo~no, 2020. "Optimal selection of the number of control units in kNN algorithm to estimate average treatment effects," Papers 2008.06564, arXiv.org.
    8. Chen, Zhang-Hangjian & Kang, JingWen & Koedijk, Kees G. & Gao, Xiang & Gu, ZhenHua, 2024. "Short-term market reactions to ESG ratings disclosures: An event study in the Chinese stock market," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    9. Jing You & Miguel Niño‐Zarazúa, 2019. "The Intergenerational Impact of China's New Rural Pension Scheme," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(S1), pages 47-95, December.
    10. Belaïd, Fateh & Flambard, Véronique, 2023. "Boosting buildings energy efficiency: The impact of social norms and motivational feedback," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 26-39.
    11. Paul Hünermund & Dirk Czarnitzki, 2016. "Estimating the local average treatment effect of R&D subsidies in a pan-European program," Working Papers of Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven 541177, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven.
    12. Stephan, Ute & Tavares, Susana M. & Carvalho, Helena & Ramalho, Joaquim J.S. & Santos, Susana C. & van Veldhoven, Marc, 2020. "Self-employment and eudaimonic well-being: Energized by meaning, enabled by societal legitimacy," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(6).
    13. Chee Kian Leong & Lefan Liu, 2025. "Smoking damages your wages, but heavy drinking aggravates the damages," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 69(6), pages 4033-4055, December.
    14. Delprato, Marcos & Akyeampong, Kwame, 2019. "The effect of working on students’ learning in Latin America: Evidence from the learning survey TERCE," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Jabeen, Gul & Yan, Qingyou & Ahmad, Munir & Fatima, Nousheen & Jabeen, Maria & Li, Heng & Qamar, Shoaib, 2020. "Household-based critical influence factors of biogas generation technology utilization: A case of Punjab province of Pakistan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 650-660.
    16. Krenz, Astrid & Strulik, Holger, 2019. "Menstruation hygiene management and work attendance in a developing country," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 364, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    17. Lucia Schiavon, 2020. "Maternal Postpartum Depression Effects on Child's Health," CHILD Working Papers Series 83 JEL Classification: I1, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    18. Péter Harasztosi & Laurent Maurin & Rozália Pál & Debora Revoltella & Wouter van der Wielen, 2022. "Firm-level policy support during the crisis: So far, so good?," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 171, pages 30-48.
    19. Yang Zou & Qingbin Wang, 2022. "Impacts of farmer cooperative membership on household income and inequality: Evidence from a household survey in China," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, December.
    20. Songliang Chen & Fang Han, 2024. "Limit theorems of matching estimators with a fixed number of matches," Papers 2411.05758, arXiv.org, revised May 2026.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

    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:kob:dpaper:dp2026-11. 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: Office of Promoting Research Collaboration, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rikobjp.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.