IN-COMPANY TRAINING FOR OLDER EMPLOYED WORKERS: RESULTS FROM A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

摘要

Even though older workers’ labor market participation has increased, their labor market participation remains far below the employment ratios of other age groups. Investments in the human capital of older workers are important to increase and maintain their employability. Nevertheless, older workers’ participation in in-company training is comparatively low. We examine governmental subsidized in-company training for older employed workers in Germany applying an experimental information treatment approach. We sent out information brochures on this program to randomly selected eligible workers to investigate to what extent knowledge about the program increases program participation and subsequently their employment probability, wages, and other job characteristics. For this purpose, we use individual register data with daily precision matched with survey data. Furthermore, we analyze to which extent the subsidy produces deadweight losses. The latter occurs if the subsidy induces firms to substitute unsubsidized for subsidized training.