Worker training: What we've learned from the NLSY79

Monthly Labor Review

Volumn 128, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 48-58

  Frazis, Harley J ^a   Spletzer, James R ^a  

^a BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS   (United States)

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EID: 28244453352     PISSN: 00981818     EISSN: 00981818     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (41)

1. See Gary Becker, "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, October 1962, pp. 9-49,
2. and Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education (Cambridge, MA, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1964);
3. Theodore W. Schultz, "Investment in Human Capital," American Economic Review, March 1961, pp. 1-17;
4. and Jacob Mincer, "Investment in Human Capital and Personal Income Distribution," Journal of Political Economy, August 1958, pp. 281-302.
5. See David A. Jaeger, "Estimating the Returns to Education Using the Newest Current Population Survey Education Questions," Economics Letters, March 2003, pp. 385-94.
6. The formal mathematical model was worked out by Masanori Hashimoto in "Firm-Specific Human Capital as a Shared Investment," American Economic Review, June 1981, pp. 475-82.
7. This greater likelihood has been shown by many authors using many data sets. For example, see the analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972 (NLSHS72) data by Joseph G. Altonji and James R. Spletzer, "Worker Characteristics, Job Characteristics, and the Receipt of On-the-Job Training," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 1991, pp. 58-79;
8. the analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS) data by Norman Bowers and Paul Swaim, "Recent Trends in Job Training," Contemporary Economic Policy, 1994, pp. 79-88;
9. the analysis of Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data by Greg J. Duncan and Saul Hoffman, "On-the-Job Training and Earnings Differences by Race and Sex," Review of Economics and Statistics, 1979, pp. 594-603; and the analysis of the NLSY79 data by the authors cited in the later sections of this article.
10. Jacob Mincer, "On-the-job training: Costs, returns and some implications," Journal of Political Economy, October 1962, pt. 2, pp. 50-79.
11. Jacob Mincer, Schooling, Experience, and Earnings (New York, Columbia University Press, 1974).
12. Later research found that earnings profiles were better described by a quartic function of experience; see Kevin M. Murphy and Finis Welch, "Empirical Age-Earnings Profiles," Journal of Labor Economics, April 1990, pp. 202-29.
13. See Boyan Jovanovic, "Job Matching and the Theory of Turnover," Journal of Political Economy, October 1979, pp. 972-90;
14. Edward Lazear, "Agency, Earnings Profiles, Productivity, and Hours Restrictions," American Economic Review, September 1981, pp. 606-20;
15. and Joanne Salop and Steven Salop, "Self-Selection and Turnover in the Labor Market," Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1976, pp. 619-27.
16. Greg J. Duncan and Saul Hoffman, "On-The-Job Training and Earnings Differences by Race and Sex," Review of Economics and Statistics, November 1979, pp. 594-603;
17. and James N. Brown, "Why Do Wages Increase with Tenure? On-the-Job Training and Life-Cycle Wage Growth Observed within Firms," American Economic Review, December 1989, pp. 971-91.
18. Lee A. Lillard and Hong W. Tan, "Private Sector Training: Who Gets It and What Are Its Effects?" Research in Labor Economics, vol. 13, 1992, pp. 1-62.
19. Found at http://www.nlsinfo.org/nlsy79/docs/79html/79text/training.htm.
20. As mentioned in footnote 1 of table 1, the training questions in 1988, 1996, 1998, and 2000 have a 2-year reference period, whereas the training questions in 1989-94 have a 1-year reference period.
21. Lisa M. Lynch, "Private Sector Training and the Earnings of Young Workers," American Economic Review, March 1992, pp. 299-312.
22. Jonathan R. Veum, "Sources of Training and their Impact on Wages," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, July 1995, pp. 812-26.
23. Daniel Parent, "Wages and Mobility: The Impact of Employer-Provided Training," Journal of Labor Economics, April 1999, pp. 298-317.
24. Paul A. Lengermann, "How Long Do the Benefits of Training Last? Evidence of Long Term Effects across Current and Previous Employers," Research in Labor Economics, vol. 18, 1999, pp. 439-61.
25. Harley Frazis and Mark A. Loewenstein, "Reexamining the Returns to Training: Functional Form, Magnitude, and Interpretation," BLS working paper no. 367, Journal of Human Resources, forthcoming, spring 2005.
26. Lisa M. Lynch, "The Role of Off-the-Job vs. On-the-Job Training for the Mobility of Women Workers, "American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 1991, pp. 151-56.
27. Mark A. Loewenstein and James R. Spletzer, "Delayed Formal On-the-Job Training," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, October 1997, pp. 82-99.
28. Anne Beeson Royalty, "The Effects of Job Turnover on the Training of Men and Women," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, April 1996, pp. 506-21.
29. Mark A. Loewenstein and James R. Spletzer, "Dividing the Costs and Returns to General Training," Journal of Labor Economics, January 1998, pp. 142-71.
30. See, for example, John M. Barron, Dan A. Black, and Mark A. Loewenstein, "Job Matching and On-the-Job Training," Journal of Labor Economics, January 1989, pp. 1-19;
31. and John M. Barron, Mark C. Berger, and Dan A. Black, "Do Workers Pay tor On-the-Job Training?" The Journal of Human Resources, spring 1999, pp. 235-52.
32. For recent studies on the growing literature of why employers may share the costs of, and returns to, general training, see John Bishop, "What We Know about Employer-Provided Training: A Review of the Literature," Research in Labor Economics, vol. 16, 1997, pp. 19-87;
33. Daron Acemoglu and Jorn-Steffen Pischke, "Why Do Firms Train? Theory and Evidence," Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1998, pp. 79-119,
34. and "The Structure of Wages and Investment in General Training," Journal of Political Economy, June 1999, pp. 539-72;
35. Alison Booth and Mark Bryan, "Who Pays for General Training? New Evidence for British Men and Women," discussion paper no. 486 (Bonn, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2002);
36. and Alison Booth and Gylfi Zoega, "Is Wage Compression a Necessary Condition for Firm-Financed General Training?" Oxford Economic Papers, January 2004, pp. 88-97.
37. Mark A. Loewenstein and James R. Spletzer, "General and Specific Training: Evidence and Implications," Journal of Human Resources, fall 1999, pp. 710-33.
38. For an analysis of the extent of measurement error in training in an employer data set, see John M. Barron, Mark C. Berger, and Dan A. Black, "How Well Do We Measure Training?" Journal of Labor Economics, July 1997, pt. 1, pp. 507-28.
39. For a start on the extremely complicated topic of statistical consequences of, and remedies for, measurement error, see Harley Frazis and Mark Loewenstein, "Estimating Linear Regressions with Mismeasured, Possibly Endogenous, Binary Explanatory Variables," Journal of Econometrics, November 2003, pp. 151-78,
40. and the working-paper version of "Reexamining the Returns to Training."
41. A first pass at analyzing these responses is Mark A. Loewenstein and James R. Spletzer, "Formal and Informal Training: Evidence from the NLSY79," Research in Labor Economics, vol. 18, 1999, pp. 403-38.