Training participation and the role of reciprocal attitudes

Arjan Non*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, I examine the relation between workers' reciprocal attitudes, as measured in 2005 and 2010, and participation in work-related training courses in 2007 and 2013, respectively. Theory predicts that employers find it more profitable to invest in human capital of workers who have positively reciprocal attitudes, because they are more likely to return their employer's kindness with higher effort and/or loyalty. The findings are mixed, depending on the survey year. I find that positively reciprocal workers are more likely to participate in employer-financed training in 2007, in particular when training is general. Also, consistent with theoretical expectations, I do not find a relation between workers' reciprocal attitudes and participation in training that is not financed by the employer. However, workers' reciprocal attitudes are not related to training participation in 2013. A possible explanation is that employers use training to induce reciprocal feelings in a slack labour market only. (JEL codes: M53 and D91).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)33-59
Number of pages27
JournalCESifo Economic Studies
Volume66
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Ifo Institute, Munich.

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