Effects of State-Sponsored Human Capital Investment on the Selection of Training Type

1990年代以降、経費削減のため、日本企業は人的資本投資を減らした。また、非正規雇用の増加や離職率の上昇に対応して、労働者の側も、自己防衛のために、自己投資をするインセンティブを強く持つようになってきた。この研究では、まず、労働者の自発的な人的投資が賃金率に与える影響、更には、どのような人がどのような訓練に参加し、その結果、訓練内容によって自己投資が賃金率に与える影響を検証した。個人レベルの異質性をコントロールした我々の推計によると、自己投資は賃金率を7%程度上昇させ、その効果は特に実務的な訓練において大きい。また、正規社員はリターンが高い現在の業務に関連する実務的なプログラム（具体的には、オフィス事務・パソコン操作、情報処理技術など）を選択する傾向がある一方、非正規雇用は賃金面でリターンが低いスクーリング（たとえば、専門学校、大学大学院などに通う）を選ぶ傾向がある。この傾向は、訓練プログラムの自己選択を通じて、潜在的に賃金格差を拡大させる可能性がある。我々の推計では、教育訓練給付金は、正規、非正規社員ともにリターンが高いプログラムを選ぶ確率を高めることも明らかとなった。これは、教育訓練給付金が、労働者を実務的な訓練に誘導し、その結果、賃金率を高める効果があることを示唆する。

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