Employers and the politics of skill formation in a coordinated market economy: Collective action and class conflict in norway

Politics and Society

Volumn 33, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 567-594

  Bowman, John R ^a,b  

^a CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

^b CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

Author keywords

Collective action; Coordinated market economies; Employers; Varieties of capitalism; Vocational training

Indexed keywords

EID: 28744443503     PISSN: 00323292     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0032329205280925     Document Type: Review

References (113)

1. Peter A. Hall and David Soskice, "An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism," in Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, ed. Peter A. Hall and David Soskice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 1-68.
2. Hall and Soskice, "An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism," 17-21.
3. Philip Brown, "Skill Formation in the Twentieth Century," in High Skills: Globalization, Competitiveness, and Skill Formation, ed. Philip Brown, Andy Green, and Hugh Lauder (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001),1-55.
4. Quoted in Margaret Stevens, "Transferable Training and Poaching Externalities," in Acquiring Skills, ed. Alison L. Booth and Dennis J. Snower (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 21.
5. Ibid.Quoted in Margaret Stevens, "Transferable Training and Poaching Externalities," in Acquiring Skills, 1996, 21.
6. Gary Becker, Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 30-46. Becker also argued that the poaching externality would also disappear in the case of "general" skills, those that are valued by many firms. In this situation, the worker captures all of the gains from the increased skills, and therefore will pay the costs of the additional training that produces them. However, as Margaret Stevens suggests, the more likely scenario is for skills to be "transferable," valued by some (but not many) other firms. In this case, the worker faces an imperfect labor market and the poaching externality emerges. (Stevens, "Transferable Training and Poaching Externalities.") In fact, even in Becker's analysis, the possibility of suboptimal outcomes remains present, due to capital market imperfections that may prevent workers from financing their training.
7. (See Becker, Human Capital, 93-94.)
8. David Soskice, "Reconciling Markets and Institutions: The German Apprenticeship System," in Training and the Private Sector, ed. Lisa M. Lynch (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 46-47.
9. Daron Acemoglu and Jörn-Steffen Pischke, "Beyond Becker: Training in Imperfect Labour Markets," Economic Journal 109 (February 1999): F121-25.
10. Ibid., Daron Acemoglu and Jörn-Steffen Pischke, "Beyond Becker: Training in Imperfect Labour Markets," Economic Journal 109, 1999, F120.
11. Pepper C. Culpepper, "Still a Model for the Industrialized Countries?" in The German Skills Machine: Sustaining Comparative Advantage in a Global Economy, ed. Pepper D. Culpepper and David Finegold (New York: Berghahn, 1999), 2.
12. Karin Wagner, "The German Apprenticeship System under Strain," in Culpepper and Finegold, The German Skills Machine, 44.
13. Ibid.,Karin Wagner, "The German Apprenticeship System under Strain," The German Skills Machine, 45-46.
14. Ibid., Karin Wagner, "The German Apprenticeship System under Strain," The German Skills Machine, 47-48.
15. Soskice, "Reconciling Markets and Institutions," 32; and
16. Hall and Soskice, "An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism," 17-21.
17. Soskice, "Reconciling Markets and Institutions"; and
18. Daron Acemoglu and Jörn-Steffen Pischke, "Why Do Firms Train? Theory and Evidence," Quarterly Journal of Economics 113, no. 1 (February 1998): 79-119.
19. Acemoglu and Pischke, "Beyond Becker," F125; and
20. Kathleen Thelen, How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 20.
21. Soskice, "Reconciling Markets and Institutions," 34.
22. Thelen, How Institutions Evolve, 18.
23. Pepper D. Culpepper. Creating Cooperation: How States Develop Human Capital in Europe (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2003), 19-20.
24. Ibid. Pepper D. Culpepper. Creating Cooperation: How States Develop Human Capital in Europe, 2003,20.
25. Soskice, "Reconciling Markets and Institutions," 34.
26. Continuing training is training required to keep up to date with her present responsibilities. Further training is the training required to expand the range of her responsibilities. In this article, I use these terms interchangeably. One work that does explicitly address the distinction between initial and further training is Colin Crouch, David Finegold, and Mari Sako. Are Skills the Answer? The Political Economy of Skill Creation in Advanced Industrial Countries (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 20-22.
27. Culpepper, "Still a Model for the Industrialized Countries?" 23.
28. Jutta Gatter, "Continuing Occupational Training in an Aging German Economy," in Culpepper and Finegold. The German Skills Machine, 244, 264-66.
29. Andersen quotes a newspaper published by masonry workers: "The new apprentice law was forced through the Storting in spite of the handicraft masters' [håndversmesternes] protests and threats." Kjell Andersen, Allmennutdanning og yrkesutdanning i Norge (Kristiansand: Norwegian Academic Press, 1999), 67.
30. Norges Offentlige Utredninger (NOU), Om Lærlinglov (Oslo: Nov, 1978:30), 77.
31. Ibid.,Om Lærlinglov, 1978:30, 49.
32. European Center for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), Vocational Training in Norway (Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP, 1999), 46.
33. Ibid., Vocational Training in Norway, 1999, 61-62.
34. NOU, Veien videre til studie- og yrkeskompetanse for alle (Oslo: Nov, 1991:4), 1; and
35. Sveinung Skule, Mark Stuart, and Torgeir Nyen, "International Briefing 12: Training and Development in Norway " International Journal of Training and Development 6, no. 4 (2002): 267.
36. Andersen, Allmennutdanning og yrkesutdanning i Norge, 127.
37. NOU. Veien videre, 153.
38. Peter Elias, Erik Hernæs, and Meredith Baker, "Vocational Education and Training in Britain and Norway," in Lynch, Training and the Private Sector, 287.
39. The reform also created another option for students who were unable to find apprenticeships, in which a year of advanced training in school replaces the two-year apprenticeship.
40. Author's interview with Baard Meidell Johannesen, Assistant Director, NHO, Oslo. June 2003. The state stipend has subsequently been increased. It now stands at 80,000 Norwegian kroner.
41. Skule, Stuart, and Nyen, "International Briefing 12," 267.
42. This does not mean that Reform 94 has been an unqualified success. In recent years, the number of apprentices has stagnated, and there are still shortages of apprentice places in some occupations.
43. Author's interview with Olav Magnussen, Director, NHO, Oslo, June 2004.
44. Author's interview with Elisabeth Lund, Director, Reiselivsbedriftenes Landsforening (the association of employers in the hotel and restaurant sector), Oslo, June 2003.
45. Author's interview with Inge Beate Lundsgård, Department Manager, Federation of Norwegian Manufacturing Industries. Oslo. June 2004.
46. Johannesen interview, 2003.
47. Lundsgård interview, 2004.
48. Lund interview, 2003.
49. Johannesen interview, 2004.
50. Karin Wagner argues that in the German case, the importance of selective incentives has been underemphasized. She suggests that until 1991, at least, the benefits to firms of taking on apprentices exceeded the costs. Wagner, "The German Apprenticeship System under Strain," 41-49.
51. Author's interview with Lars Juterud, Director, Byggenæringen's Landsforening (association of employers in the building industry), Oslo, June 2004.
52. Juterud interview, 2004.
53. Lundsgård interview, 2004.
54. Johannesen interview, 2004.
55. Johannesen interview, 2004.
56. Author's interviews with opplæringskonlorer officials.
57. Lund interview, 2004.
58. This account is based on the author's interviews with opplæringskontorer officials in several branches.
59. Author's interview with Johan Sverdrup, Assistant Director, NHO, Oslo, June 2004; and Johannesen interview, 2004.
60. Lund interview, 2004.
61. Author interviews with representatives of employers' associations and training offices.
62. Lundsgård interview, 2004.
63. Lund interview, 2004.
64. Lundsgård interview, 2004.
65. Anders Reichborn, Arne Pape, and Kjersti Kleven, Papir på egen dyktighet (Oslo: FAFO, 1998), 9.
66. Arne Pape, Section 20: Crafts Examination as the Basis of Documented Non-Formal Qualifications: The Case of Norway (Oslo: FAFO, 1999), 2.
67. Ibid., Arne Pape, Section 20: Crafts Examination as the Basis of Documented Non-Formal Qualifications: The Case of Norway, 1999, 10.
68. Ibid.,Arne Pape, Section 20: Crafts Examination as the Basis of Documented Non-Formal Qualifications: The Case of Norway, 1999, 20.
69. Juterud interview, 2004.
70. Lundsgård interview, 2004.
71. Reichborn, Pape, and Kleven, Papir på egen dyktighet, 64-68.
72. Author's interview with anonymous officials from Landsorganisasjonen i Norge (Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions), Oslo, June 2004.
73. Hege Madsen, Modernisering og tradisjon i et Fagarbeiderkollektiv: kampen for elektromontørfaget 1966-1996 (Hovedoppgave, Norway: Historisk Institutt, Universitet i Bergen, 2000), 97-98.
74. Ibid., Hege Madsen, Modernisering og tradisjon i et Fagarbeiderkollektiv: kampen for elektromontørfaget 1966-1996, 2000, 68-77.
75. Author's interview with Helge Løvdal, Special Advisor, NHO, November 1996.
76. Madsen, Modernisering og tradisjon i et Fagarbeiderkollektiv, 110.
77. Aftenposten, December 4, 1997.
78. Aftenposten, January 3, 1999.
79. Aftenposten, February 19, 1998.
80. John R. Bowman, "Employers and the Persistence of Centralized Wage Setting: The Case of Norway," Comparative Political Studies 35, no. 9 (November 2002): 995-1026. Wage bargaining between LO, the leading labor federation, and NHO, the leading private sector employers' federation, occurs in one of two forms. When bargaining is "coordinated," wage increases are determined at the level of the national federations. Wage bargaining can also take place at the industry level. Traditionally, LO determines the level of bargaining at the onset of the negotiations.
81. Skule, Stuart, and Nyen, "International Briefing 12," 270; and
82. Madsen, Modernisering og tradisjon i et Fagarbeiderkollektiv, 110.
83. NOU, Ny kompetanse (Oslo: NOS, 1997).
84. Ibid. Ny kompetanse, 1997
85. Quoted in Arvid Fennefoss. "Lønnsoppgjøret 1998," [unpublished manuscript] Fædrelandsvennen 1998.
86. Aftenposten, March 26, 1998.
87. Aftenposten, February 19, 1998.
88. Olsen interview. June, 2003: anonymous LO interviews, June 2004; and
89. Aftenposten, February 16, 1998.
90. Aftenposten, March 25, 1999; and
91. Aftenposten, March 26, 1998.
92. Aftenposten, April 18, 1999
93. Interview with Olav Magnussen, director, NHO, June 2004.
94. Aftenposten, January 17, 2002
95. The quote is from the author's interview with Olav Magnussen. who was a member of NHO's negotiating team.
96. Skule. Stuart, and Nyen, "International Briefing 12." 271.
97. Nou, Støttle til livsopphold vel utdfanningspermisjon (Nou 2001:25). NOS, 2001: Funding for Subsistence in Connection with Leaves of Absence for Educational Purposes.
98. Juterud interview, 2004.
99. Thelen, How Institutions Evolve, 34-35.
100. Johannesen interview. 2003; and anonymous LO interview, 2004.
101. Johannesen interview, 2003.
102. Johannesen interview, 2003.
103. Anonymous LO interview, 2004.
104. Anonymous NHO interview, 2004.
105. Lund interview. 2004.
106. Juterud interview, 2004.
107. Author's interview with Per Inge Nørbech, Assistant Director, Federation of Norwegian Process Industries, June 2003.
108. Magnussen interview, 2004.
109. Magnussen interview. Also, see Referat fra debatten i Stortinget, January 19, 1999.
110. Aftenposten, October 24, 1999.
111. Author's interview with Per Gunnar Olsen, first secretary, LO, Oslo, May 2003.
112. Crouch, Finegold, and Sako. Are Skills the Answer?, 21.
113. For evidence of such sectoral disparities in training in Norway, see Anna Hagen and Sveinung Skule, Det Norske kompetansemurkedet: en oversikt og analyse (Oslo: FAFO, 2004).