Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/52431 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 3614
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Policy debates about the balance of vocational and general education programs focus on the school-to-work transition. But with rapid technological change, gains in youth employment from vocational education may be offset by less adaptability and thus diminished employment later in life. To test our main hypothesis that any relative labor-market advantage of vocational education decreases with age, we employ a difference-in-differences approach that compares employment rates across different ages for people with general and vocational education. Using micro data for 18 countries from the International Adult Literacy Survey, we find strong support for the existence of such a trade-off, which is most pronounced in countries emphasizing apprenticeship programs. Results are robust to accounting for ability patterns and to propensity-score matching.
Subjects: 
vocational education
apprenticeship
employment
wages
life-cycle
adult education
International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS)
JEL: 
J24
J64
J31
I20
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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