TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Bertermann, Alexander
AU  - Dauth, Wolfgang
AU  - Suedekum, Jens
AU  - Woessmann, Ludger
        TI  - Training or Retiring? How Labor Markets Adjust to Trade and Technology Shocks
        PY  - 2025/Nov/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18247
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18247
        AB  - How do firms and workers adjust to trade and technology shocks? We analyze two mechanisms that have received little attention: training that upgrades skills and early retirement that shifts adjustment costs to public pension systems. We combine novel data on training participation and early retirement in German local labor markets with established measures of exposure to trade competition and robot adoption. Results indicate that negative trade shocks reduce training—particularly in manufacturing—while robot exposure increases training—particularly in indirectly affected services. Both shocks raise early retirement among manufacturing workers. Structural change thus induces both productivity-enhancing and productivity-reducing responses, challenging simple narratives of labor market adaptation and highlighting the scope for policy to promote adjustment mechanisms conducive to aggregate productivity.
        KW  - workers
KW  - firms
KW  - robots
KW  - automation
KW  - technological change
KW  - trade
KW  - retirement
KW  - training
KW  - labor market
        ER  -