Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/251035 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
KOF Working Papers No. 495
Publisher: 
ETH Zurich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, Zurich
Abstract: 
Does better access to skilled workers reduce firms' willingness to provide general skills training to unskilled workers? We analyze how the gradual opening of the Swiss labor market to workers from the European Union affected the number of apprenticeship positions that firms provide. We exploit that the availability of skilled workers increased more in firms close to the border because they gained unrestricted access to cross-border workers from neighboring countries. Our Difference-in-Differences estimates suggest that firm-provided training and access to skilled workers are not necessarily substitutes: opening the borders did not have a statistically significant effect on apprenticeship provision. We show theoretically and empirically that the small impact was the consequence of two opposing effects: the greater availability of skilled workers reduced firms' incentive to train because the cost of hiring external labor fell. Positive impacts on firm growth worked in the opposite direction.
Subjects: 
labor demand
skilled immigration
firm-provided training
apprenticeships
vocational education and training
free movement of workers
cross-border workers
recruitment
immigration policy
labor mobility
hiring costs
JEL: 
J24
J63
M53
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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