Continuous Training, Job Satisfaction and Gender - An Empirical Analysis Using German Panel Data

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between participation in further training courses and job satisfaction, focussing in particular on gender differences. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), a Probit-adapted OLS (POLS) model is employed which allows to account for individual fixed effects. The analysis controls for a variety of socio-demographic, job and firm characteristics.

The authors find a difference between males and females in the correlation between training and job satisfaction which is positive for males but insignificant for females. This difference becomes even more pronounced when applying individual fixed effects. To gain insights into the reasons for this difference, the authors further investigate training characteristics by gender. The authors find that financial support and career-orientation of courses only seems to matter for the job satisfaction of men but not for the satisfaction of women.