School-to-Work Programs in the United States: A Multi-Firm Case Study of Training, Benefits, and Costs
通过七家不同规模、类型和地点企业的案例研究，分析了美国学校到工作项目的培训与财务状况，发现企业承担了通用培训成本，但多数项目收益难以覆盖成本，揭示了劳动力市场缺陷对企业投资通用技能的影响。
This paper provides one of the first detailed analyses of the training and finances of school-to-work (STW) programs in the United States. The data are from case studies of seven STW programs sponsored by firms of diverse size, type, and location. In almost every case, the firm paid at least some of the costs of general training. Most firms recoup some of these costs through rents captured by hiring former apprentices, but only in two cases do benefits seem likely to outweigh costs. These findings suggest that certain imperfections in American labor markets--for example, compensation that undershoots marginal products for some workers, and a gap between productivity and wages that sometimes increases with workers' skill levels--motivate firms to invest in general skills, but these labor market imperfections may not be great enough to allow firms to sustain STW programs over the long run.