Population Aging and Trends in the Provision of Work-Place Training

Abstract

This study investigates whether the incidence and distribution of work-place training has changed as the German workforce commenced its demographic aging process. As the lifespan in productive employment lengthens human capital investments for older workers become increasingly worthwhile. Using data taken from two different German population surveys we describe recent trends in the development of human capital investments and apply decomposition procedures to the probability of receiving training. Ceteris paribus the shift in the population age distribution by itself would have lead to a decline in training participation over the considered period from the mid 1990s to 2004. However, decomposition analyses yield that behavioral changes are behind the observed increase in training particularly among older workers. This is confirmed by multivariate regressions on pooled annual data: the increase in training probabilities over time is highest among older workers.