Data for: Employment polarization and the role of the apprenticeship system

Abstract of associated article: This paper studies the effect of apprenticeship training on technology adoption and labor market polarization. A stylized model with two key features is developed: (1) apprentices are more productive due to industry-specific training, but (2) from the firm׳s perspective, when training apprentices, technological innovation is costly since training becomes obsolete. Thus, apprentices correlate with slower adoption of skill-replacing technologies, but also less employment polarization. We test this hypothesis on German regions given local variation in apprenticeship systems until 1976. The results show little computer adoption and no employment polarization related to apprentices, but similar displacement of non-apprentices by computers as in the US.

本文探讨了学徒制培训对技术采纳与劳动力市场极化的影响。构建了一个包含两个核心特征的典型模型：（1）由于行业特定培训，学徒的劳动生产率更高；（2）从企业角度来看，由于培训内容过时，对学徒的培训成本高昂。因此，学徒制与技能替代技术的较慢采纳相关，同时也降低了就业市场的极化程度。我们基于1976年德国各地区学徒制系统的地域差异，对这一假设进行了检验。结果显示，学徒制与计算机的采纳程度较低，与就业市场的极化程度无直接关联，但非学徒被计算机替代的现象与美国的情形相似。