Samuel Muehlemann

• Dr. rer. oec.
• Professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich

This paper analyzes the structure of hiring costs for skilled workers. We use novel Swiss administrative firm-level survey data that provide direct and detailed measures of hiring costs, including recruitment and adaptation. Results show that average hiring costs range, depending on firm size, from 10 to 17 weeks of wage payments. The structure of...

Although interest in monopsonistic influences on labour market outcomes has revived in recent years, only a few empirical studies provide direct evidence on it. This paper analyses empirically the effect of monopsony power on pay structure, using a direct measure of labour market ‘thinness’. We find that having fewer competitors for skilled labour...

We present a model with heterogeneous inputs and constant elasticity of substitution to examine the possible effects of a supply shock in the market for apprenticeship training. The model’s predictions are tested using data from a German high school reform that led to a one-time increase in the supply of highly educated apprentices. A difference-in...

This paper analyzes the relationship between labor market tightness and firms' hiring behavior. We use unique linked employer-employee data to show that firms lower their hiring standards in tight labor markets, but we find no evidence that firms increase the starting wages of new hires. Exploiting detailed data on pre-and post-match hiring costs,...

This study analyzes the relationship between firms' costs of hiring skilled workers and their provision of internal apprenticeship training. Our empirical analysis draws on four waves of firm surveys conducted in Germany and Switzerland that include detailed information on firms' hiring costs for skilled workers and training practices. Using an ind...

Apprenticeship training programs typically last several years and require substantial investments by training firms, largely due to the associated labor costs for participants and instructors. Nevertheless, apprentices also add significant value in the workplace. One tool to measure the costs and benefits of training for firms is employer surveys,...

The eastward enlargement rounds of the European Union (EU) between 2004 and 2007 represent a broad regulatory expansion of the European labor market that facilitated the recruitment of individuals from new member states. We focus on the effects of EU enlargement on human capital accumulation and wages in Germany. The analysis employs linked employe...

We present a model with heterogeneous inputs and constant elasticity of substitution to examine the possible effects of a supply shock in the market for apprenticeship training. The model's predictions are tested using data from a German high school reform that led to a one-time increase in the supply of highly educated apprentices. A difference-in...

A firm’s expectation about the future business cycle is an important determinant of the decision to train apprentices, especially as German firms typically offer apprenticeships to either fill future skilled worker positions, or as a substitute for other types of labor. The current coronavirus crisis will have a strong and negative impact on the Ge...

Purpose – Works councils have the legal right to participate in a firm’s training process and, where necessary, callfor a replacement of training instructors. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test whether works councils are associated with a higher quality of apprenticeship training – or its inputs or outputs – in Germany. Design/methodo...

Vocational education and training (VET) has received growing attention in recent years from both economists and policymakers. High youth unemployment rates in many countries, particularly after the financial crisis in 2008, have been associated with a failure by national education systems to provide individuals with the relevant skills for a succes...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare a firm’s net cost and post-apprenticeship benefits of providing apprenticeship training in Austria and Switzerland: two countries with many similarities but some critical institutional differences. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on detailed workplace data with information on the costs...

We provide new empirical evidence on the magnitude and determinants of a firm’s hiring costs when filling a vacancy for skilled workers. In Switzerland, the average hiring costs amount to about 16 weeks of wage payments. The main components of hiring costs are post-match hiring costs, resulting from the initial low productivity and formal training...

The authors compare a firm’s costs and benefits of providing apprenticeship training in Austria and Switzerland, using two original micro data sets. While both countries share a number of similarities, including an extensive vocational education and training (VET) system, and a common border, there are some important institutional differences. On a...

In this article, we use workplace-level data to analyse the costs of filling an apprenticeship vacancy in Germany. We find that such recruitment costs amount on average to €600 per hire (almost one month’s pay of an apprentice or approximately 1–2 % of a workplace’s training expenditures), but costs are heterogeneous across workplaces and vary stro...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to simulate the potential costs and benefits for Spanish firms providing dual apprenticeship training. Design/methodology/approach The paper conducts simulations of ten training occupations in six different industries in Spain. For these simulations, the authors combined Spanish wage data and the existing tra...

Dual apprenticeship training is increasingly seen as an important educational track that provides youth with the skills necessary for a smooth transition into the labour market. However, providing skills at the workplace rather than at (vocational) school comes at a cost for firms that hire such apprentices. Nonetheless, as apprentices become part...

The author discusses the success of the Swiss system of apprenticeships. The famous German apprenticeship system requires that firms make an investment in their students, he writes, but the interesting Swiss system makes it possible to recoup such investments by the end of the training period without substantial state aid. High training standards c...

This paper analyzes the structure of hiring costs of skilled workers in Germany. Using detailed and representative firm-level data on recruitment and adaptation costs of new hires, we find that average hiring costs amount to more than 8 weeks of wage payments (€4700). The structure of hiring costs is convex, as an increase in the number of hires by...

This article analyses how the costs of hiring skilled workers from the external labour market affect a firm’s supply of training. Using administrative survey data with detailed information on hiring and training costs for Swiss firms, we find evidence for substantial and increasing marginal hiring costs. However, firms can invest in internal traini...

We provide new empirical evidence regarding the magnitude and the determinants of a firm’s costs required to fill a vacancy. The average costs required to fill a vacancy for a skilled worker in Switzerland amount to about 16 weeks of wage payments. The main components of the vacancy costs are initially low productivity, the formal instruction of a...

A firm’s decision to engage in apprenticeship training is to a large extent determined by the cost-benefit ratio of such an investment compared to other alternatives of securing skilled workers. Empirical evidence shows that in a well-functioning apprenticeship training system, a large share of training firms can recoup their training investments b...

Background: Switzerland is host to many international companies, and a large share of Swiss firms is exporting goods and services abroad. While the vocational education and training (VET) system in Switzerland has a long tradition, there is a paucity of studies investigating the effects of the ongoing internationalization on the training participat...

In this paper, we investigate the effects of works councils on apprenticeship training in Germany. The German law attributes works councils substantial information and codetermination rights to training-related issues. Thus, works councils may also have an impacton the cost-benefit relation of workplace training. Using detailed firm-level data cont...

This paper analyzes the structure of hiring costs of skilled workers in Germany. Using detailed and representative firm-level data on recruitment and adaptation costs of new hires, we find that average hiring costs amount to more than 8 weeks of wage payments (€ 4,700). The structure of hiring costs is convex, as an increase in the number of hires...

Schweizer Betriebe haben schon seit längerer Zeit erhebliche Probleme, genügend qualifizierte Fachkräfte zu rekrutieren. Seit der Einführung der Personenfreizügigkeit im Jahr 2002 ist es für ­Betriebe prinzipiell einfacher geworden, auf Fachkräfte aus dem EU-Raum zurückzugreifen. Die vorliegende Analyse zeigt, dass sich das generelle Niveau des Fac...

Purpose – The paper aims to test whether a firm's provision of training depends on the intake quality of trainees. While a firm may just treat each trainee equally, independent of his or her intake quality, firms may alternatively also provide more training to less able individuals or focus on the most able ones. The authors develop a theoretical f...

This paper analyzes how the costs of hiring skilled workers from the external labor market affect a firm's supply of training. Using administrative survey data with detailed information on hiring and training costs for Swiss firms, we find evidence for substantial and increasing marginal hiring costs. However, firms can invest in internal training...

A firm's decision to invest in the general human capital of its workers can be affected by labor market conditions. Firms located close to a large number of competitors might refrain from financing general training because skilled workers may be poached after completion of training. To better incorporate economic realities, we apply a novel definit...

Auf dem Schweizer Arbeitsmarkt gibt es mehrere hunderttausend Arbeitgeber, die um Arbeitnehmende werben. Angesichts dieser Zahlen könnte man eigentlich von einem vollkommenen Wettbewerb um Arbeitskräfte ausgehen, welcher dem einzelnen Arbeitgeber keine Monopolmacht – in diesem Fall ein Monopson – verleiht, Löhne nach eigenem Gutdünken festzulegen....

In this paper we analyze the training behavior of firms in Germany and Switzerland — two countries with a comparable apprenticeship system but strong differences in the regulation of their respective labor markets. We make use of two representative firm-level surveys on the provision of apprenticeship training to analyze differences in the costs an...

Zukünftig wird die Zahl der verfügbaren Fachkräfte aufgrund der demografischen Entwicklung auch in der Schweiz stetig abnehmen. Vor diesem Hintergrund gewinnt die duale Berufsbildung für die Betriebe an Attraktivität. Andererseits gibt es auch immer weniger Schulabgänger, die für eine Ausbildungsstelle geeignet sind. Ob und wie viele Ausbildungsplä...

Dual apprenticeship training, which combines vocational education at school and training at the workplace, is of great importance in Switzerland. More than half of each cohort of school leavers at age 15 enrols in such a program every year. Apprentices spend the majority of their time in a firm; thus economic aspects may play an important role in a...

Dual apprenticeship training is a form of education at the upper secondary level, taking place in vocational school as well as in firms. Therefore, the willingness of firms to offer apprenticeships is a necessity for the functioning of this part of the educational system. Although it is likely that the economic climate has an impact on the firm’s s...

Der Lehrstellenmarkt in der Schweiz wird in den nächsten fünf Jahren von der Demografie bestimmt. Empirische Untersuchungen der vergangenen Konjunkturzyklen zeigten, dass dies nicht völlig überraschend sei, schreiben die Autoren.

For the first time it has been made possible to merge a German and a Swiss firm-level data set that include detailed information about costs and benefits of apprenticeship training. Previous analyzes based only on aggregate data showed that the net costs of training apprentices are substantial in Germany, whereas apprenticeship training is on avera...

Die Lehrlingsausbildung ist in Deutschland teurer als in der Schweiz. In einer vergleichenden Analyse hat die Forschungsstelle für Bildungsökonomie an der Universität Bern zusammen mit dem Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung in Bonn die grossen Nettokostenunterschiede der beiden Länder untersucht. Die Analyse stützt sich auf Daten aus insgesamt 3296 F...

For the first time it has been made possible to merge a German and a Swiss firm-level data set that include detailed information about costs and benefits of apprenticeship training. Previous analyzes based only on aggregate data showed that the net costs of training apprentices are substantial in Germany, whereas apprenticeship training is on avera...

Zum zweiten Mal wurde eine repräsentative Untersuchung zu Kosten und Nutzen der Lehrlingsausbildung durchgeführt. Sie zeigt, dass im Durchschnitt schon am Ende einer Lehre ein Nettonutzen für den ausbildenden Betrieb resultiert. Weiterführende Analysen ergaben zudem, dass dieses für die Ausbildungsbereitschaft höchst relevante Gleichgewicht von Kos...

It is a widely held belief that apprenticeship training represents a net investment for training firms, the cost of which needs to be recouped after the training period. A new firm-level data set for Switzerland reveals large variation in net costs across firms and, remarkably, negative net costs for 60 per cent of all firms. We use these data to e...

"This paper uses regional variation in labor markets, the industry structure and the education system to explain the training decisions of firms. Using a representative firmlevel data set, the results show that firms are less likely to provide training if the number of competing firms situated in the same geographical area is high. Furthermore, the...

Das Buch stellt die Ergebnisse der zweiten repräsentativen Erhebung von Kosten und Nutzen der Lehrlingsausbildung aus betrieblicher Sicht vor. Befragt worden sind rund 2400 ausbildende und mehr als 1800 nicht ausbildende Betriebe. Die empirischen Befunde zeigen, dass die überwiegende Zahl der ausbildenden Betriebe es auch in einem konjunkturell s...

The latest study investigating the cost-benefit ratio of apprenticeship training for Swiss companies has shown that most apprentices offset the cost of their training during their apprenticeship on the basis of the productive contribution of the work they perform. Given this outcome, it is worth investigating why so many firms choose not to train a...

This paper uses regional variation in labor markets, the industry structure and the educational system to explain the training decisions of firms. Using a representative firm-level data set, the results show that firms are less likely to offer training if the number of competing firms situated in the same geographical area is high. Furthermore, the...

It is a widely held opinion that apprenticeship training represents a net investment for training firms, and that therefore firms only train if they have the possibility to recoup these investments after the training period. A recent study using a new firm-level dataset for Switzerland showed, however, that for 60 percent of the firms, the apprenti...

Eine bildungsökonomische Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse der dualen Lehre in Schweizer Unternehmen hat gezeigt, dass bei der Mehrzahl der Lehrverhältnisse die Ausbildungskosten schon während der Lehrzeit durch die produktive Leistung des Lehrlings im Betrieb gedeckt werden können. Angesichts dieser Resultate kann man sich schwerlich vorstellen, dass potenzie...

Dual apprenticeship training is a market-driven form of education at the upper secondary level, taking place in firms as well as in vocational schools. So far, little is known about the impact of the business cycle on the number of apprenticeship programs offered by firms. Using panel-data of Swiss cantons from 1988-2004, we find that the influence...