Stefan C. Wolter

• Professor
• Professor at University of Bern

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...

We investigate the impact of the presence of university dropouts on the academic success of first-time students in universities of applied sciences. Our identification strategy relies on quasi-random variation in the proportion of dropouts. The estimated average zero effect of dropouts on first-time students’ success masks treatment heterogeneity a...

Occupational choices remain strongly segregated by gender, for reasons not yet fully understood. In this paper, we use detailed information on the cognitive requirements in 130 distinct learnable occupations in the Swiss apprenticeship system to describe the broad job content in these occupations along the things-versus-people dimension. We first s...

We empirically test the hypothesis that adolescents' occupational aspirations are more gender-stereotypical if they live in a region where the societal norm towards gender equality is weaker. For our analysis, we combine rich survey data describing a sample of 1,434 Swiss adolescents who attended 8th grade in 2013 with municipal voting results deal...

Educational decisions are always made under uncertainty. This paper examines the effect of providing information about dropout risks on stated preferences for academic versus vocational education in Switzerland, making use of the fact that there are marked historical and cultural differences in preferences for and enrolment rates in academic vs. vo...

Apprenticeship systems are essentially based on the voluntary participation of firms that provide, and usually also finance, training positions, often incurring considerable net training costs. One potential, yet under-researched explanation for this behavior is that firms act in accordance with the norms and expectations they face in the local lab...

Because of an important consistency in the prestige ratings of occupations from respondents across various social groups, countries and over time, the roots of divergent perceptions of the social prestige of occupations have attracted little attention. Yet structural changes in modern economies, brought by rapid globalization and technological chan...

Even though the recession in Switzerland triggered by COVID-19 ultimately remained without consequences for the apprenticeship market, significantly fewer apprenticeship contracts had been signed in the months of the first shutdown in 2020 than in the same months of the previous year. Using daily search queries on the national administrative platfo...

Comparative analyses of public opinion on education policy in developed countries. Although research has suggested a variety of changes to education policy that have the potential to improve educational outcomes, politicians are often reluctant to implement such evidence-based reforms. Public opinion and pressure by interest groups would seem to ha...

We study the causal impact of intellectually gifted students on their nongifted classmates’ school achievement, enrollment in post-compulsory education, and occupational choices. Using student-level administrative and psychological data, we find a positive effect of exposure to gifted students on peers’ school achievement in both math and language....

This paper examines how exposure to students identified as gifted (IQ≥130) affects achievement in secondary school, enrollment in post-compulsory education, and occupational choices. By using student-level administrative data on achievement combined with psychological examination records, we study the causal impact of gifted students on their class...

Occupational choices remain strongly segregated by gender, for reasons not yet fully understood. In this paper, we use detailed information on the cognitive requirements in 130 distinct learnable occupations in the Swiss apprenticeship system to describe the broad job content in these occupations along the things-versus-people dimension. We first s...

Do citizens' preferences about education policies differ across industrialized countries? To gain comparative evidence on public preferences for education spending, we conduct representative experiments with information treatments in Switzerland using identical survey techniques previously used in Germany and the United States. In Switzerland, prov...

Although there is evidence that apprenticeship training can ease the transition of youth into the labour market and thereby alleviate youth unemployment, many policymakers fear that firms will reduce the number of apprenticeship positions during economic crises, thus exacerbating the problem of youth unemployment. Using recent panel data of Swiss c...

This book provides an overview of selected research results on the economics and governance of Vocational and Professional Education and Training (VPET), particularly apprenticeship training. It compiles over 25 research articles published in leading peer-reviewed journals, places their results in a broader context — thereby making them accessible...

We empirically test the hypothesis that adolescents' occupational aspirations are more gender-stereo\-typical if they live in regions where the societal norm towards gender equality is weaker. For our analysis, we combine rich survey data describing a sample of 1,434 Swiss adolescents in 8th grade with municipal voting results dealing with gender e...

Introduction This study examines the influence of major fluctuations in the number of students enrolling at university on the probability of dropout or a switch to a different course of study. Findings from the US show that a pronounced increase in student numbers leads to more dropouts. Materials and methods This article provides an analysis of t...

Vocational education and training (VET) often suffers from a lack of social standing among students and their families. Parents have been shown to discard vocational education because of social status maintenance considerations. How adults perceive the social prestige of occupations might therefore be key in understanding the reasons of the image d...

Apprenticeship systems are essentially based on the voluntary participation of firms that provide (and usually also finance) training positions, often incurring considerable net training costs. One potential, yet under-researched explanation for this behavior is that firms act in accordance with the norms and expectations they face with in the loca...

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...

Using a unique and original dataset measuring preferences of adults for academic vs. vocational education in Switzerland, we explore differences between Swiss citizens and foreign residents regarding individual preferences for these different types of education. We find that first-generation foreigners exhibit stronger preferences for academic educ...

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...

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...

Trotz vieler Gemeinsamkeiten des deutschen und des Schweizer dualen Ausbildungssystems unterscheiden sich die betrieblichen Ausbildungskosten in beiden Ländern deutlich. Während in Deutschland bei vielen Betrieben Nettokosten anfallen, bilden Schweizer Betriebe im Schnitt kostenneutral aus. Basierend auf einer Reihe von gemeinsamen Studien des BIBB...

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...

This study uses the Swiss Graduate Survey data to investigate the determinants of job-education mismatch and the associated consequences on earnings while controlling for various ability and motivation factors, as well as socio-demographic, labor market and institutional characteristics. The results indicate that the likelihood of a job-education m...

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...

This study presents in-depth empirical analyses of drop-outs from all Swiss universities for the entire student population between 1975 and 2008. The results show that most identifiable factors associated with a greater or lesser probability of dropping out are identical to those found in a recent Systematic Review (Larsen etal., 2013). The main fi...

When information about the abilities of job seekers is difficult to obtain, statistical discrimination by employers may be an efficient strategy in the hiring and wage-setting process. In this article, we use a unique, longitudinal survey that follows the PISA 2000 students in their early educational and work–life careers. We find that a deviance i...

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...

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...

We study gift exchange in a field experiment where a random subsample of participants in the Swiss Labour Force Survey received vouchers to be used in adult training. Actual voucher redemption can be traced, giving us the unique opportunity to study whether gift exchange in the form of participation in future rounds of the survey depends on the per...

Lifelong learning is often promoted in aging societies, but little is known about its returns or governments' ability to advance it. This paper evaluates the effects of a large-scale randomized field experiment issuing vouchers for adult education in Switzerland. We find no significant average effects of the voucher program on earnings, employment,...

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...

Switzerland radically changed its migration policy in the mid-nineties from a "non-qualified only" policy to one that favors the immigration of highly qualified migrants. To analyze the impact of this change on the schooling outcomes of migrants, this paper compares the PISA (OECD Programme for International Student Assessment) results from 2000, w...

This paper investigates the fitness-for-purpose and soundness of bibliometric parameters for measuring and elucidating the research performance of individual researchers in the field of education sciences in Switzerland. In order to take into account the specificities of publication practices of researchers in education sciences, the analyses are b...

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...

This paper uses an original dataset from a survey conducted in Switzerland in 2007 to explore the dynamics of education policy preferences. This issue has largely been neglected in that most studies on welfare state attitudes do not look at preferences for education. We argue that education policy preferences vary along two dimensions: the distribu...

This study investigates the determinants and motives of professionals who change career to vocational teaching. The framework for this study is the Swiss vocational education system, which requires that teachers of vocational subjects must have a prior career in that specific field. Thus, to work in teaching, every vocational teacher has to change...

Different from traditional gift exchange experiments, we study a field experiment where a random subsample of participants in the Swiss Labor Force Survey was sent vouchers to be used in adult training courses. Importantly for our purposes, actual voucher redemption can be traced. This gives the unique opportunity to study whether gift exchange in...

A number of studies have long shown that the probability of studying at university is influenced by the distance to the next university. This study shows for the first time that distance to university also influences the choice of subject/faculty and institution. Moreover, these findings are important because the distance effect in terms of these d...

We use a unique data set about the wage distribution that Swiss students expect for themselves ex ante, deriving parametric and non-parametric measures to capture expected wage risk. These wage risk measures are unfettered by heterogeneity which handicapped the use of actual market wage dispersion as risk measure in earlier studies. Students in our...

This study uses survey data to investigate attitudes among Swiss voters to different models offering more freedom of choice in the educational system. The findings indicate clear opposition to the use of taxpayer money to fund private schools, while free choice between public schools seems to appeal to a majority. The analyses show that the approva...

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....

When information about the true abilities of job-seekers and applicants are hard to get, statistical discrimination by employers can be an efficient strategy in the hiring and wage setting process. But statistical discrimination can induce costs, if labor relations cannot be terminated in the short term and wages are fixed over a certain period. In...

Lifelong learning becomes increasingly important in times of population ageing, but little is known about the returns to adult education or the effectiveness of government attempts to promote adult learning. This paper evaluates the effects of a large-scale randomized field experiment with vouchers for adult education. We find no significant averag...

SKBF Staff Paper 3 Zusammenfassung Diese Untersuchung prüft anhand von Befragungsdaten die Einstellung der Schweizer Wahlbevölkerung zu verschie-denen Formen freier Schulwahl. Die Befunde zeigen, dass eine Finanzierung der privaten Schulen mit öffentlichen Geldern klar abgelehnt wird, während eine freie Schulwahl zwischen öffentlichen Schulen mehrh...

Eine interessante Eigenschaft des schweizerischen Berufsbildungssystems ist es, dass es erst nach einer Karriere im erlernten Beruf möglich ist, Lehrperson für berufskundliche Fächer an einer Berufsfachschule zu werden. Es handelt sich also bei allen Berufsfachlehrpersonen um Quereinsteigerinnen und Quereinsteiger, die den Beruf der Lehrperson als...

In diesem Aufsatz wird ein methodisches Vorgehen vorgestellt, welches als Grundlage dafür dienen könnte, Universitäten in Bezug auf die Arbeitsmarkttauglichkeit ihrer Absolventen und Absolventinnen zu beurteilen. Hierzu werden verschiedene Indikatoren präsentiert und kritisch reflektiert. Die Befunde legen nahe, dass sich die Arbeitsmarkttauglichke...