May 2016

IZA DP No. 9959: Does Learning Beget Learning Throughout Adulthood? Evidence from Employees' Training Participation

substantially revised version published as 'Does learning trigger learning throughout adulthood? Evidence from training participation of the employed population' in: Economics of Education Review, 2018, 62, 82-90

Individuals with more years of education generally acquire more training later on in life. Such a relationship may be due to skills learned in early periods increasing returns to educational investments in later periods. This paper addresses the question whether the complementarity between education and training is causal. The identification is based on exogenous variation in years of education due to a reform of the schooling system and the buildup of universities. Results confirm that education has a significant impact on training participation during working life.