Author Name | KODAMA Naomi (Consulting Fellow, RIETI) / YOKOYAMA Izumi (Hitotsubashi University) / HIGUCHI Yoshio (Keio University) |
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Creation Date/NO. | May 2018 18-E-029 |
Research Project | Change in the Utilization of and Investment in Human Resources |
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Abstract
Since the 1990s, firms in Japan have reduced their human capital investment in the workplace to minimize costs. Moreover, in response to the increase in the number of non-regular employees and turnover rates, workers need to have greater incentive to make the self-motivated investment in themselves for their self-protection. In this study, we first estimate the effects of workers' self-motivated investment in themselves on wage rates. Next, we explore who is likely to participate in which training type and accordingly estimate the effects of the self-motivated investment on wage rates by training type. Our estimates controlling for individual-level fixed-effects indicate that the return is significantly positive and particularly high for practical training related to workers' current jobs, and regular workers tend to self-select these higher-returns programs, while non-regular workers are more likely to enroll in lower-returns programs, such as schooling. This trend in investment in oneself could potentially increase the wage inequality between regular and non-regular workers through the self-selection of training types. Our estimates reveal that receiving the training and education benefit raises the likelihood for workers to participate in a high-return training program regardless of whether they are non-regular or regular workers. This suggests that government benefits on self-investment change workers' self-selection of training type and serve to promote practical trainings that lead to high returns.
Published: Yokoyama, Izumi, Naomi Kodama, and Yoshio Higuchi, 2019. "Effects of state-sponsored human capital investment on the selection of training type," Japan and the World Economy, Vol. 49, pp. 40-49
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0922142518300409