Older Workers' Training Opportunities in Times of Workplace Innovation

59 Pages Posted: 22 Feb 2012

See all articles by Lisa Magnani

Lisa Magnani

Macquarie University, Macquarie Business School

Date Written: December 21, 2011

Abstract

Training (for workers) and innovation (for workplaces) are not free lunches. Both activities are also highly risky. If training is costly, possibly not all workers will received it. If training expenses are substantial, employers may attempt to recoup part of the training costs per employee by setting longer working times. Workers may face the unpleasant trade-off between training opportunities (and longer hours) or shorter working time with less training opportunities. Training is likely to make firms less willing to provide hours flexibility, but constrained working time may lead workers to quit. Firms may internalize the risk of workers' mobility by reducing their training investments in these workers. By comparing two matched employer-employee datasets for Australia and Canada, this study finds a consistently negative impact of hours constraints on the workers' chances to receive training. However, this impact is consistently larger in Australia than in Canada and more so in a sample of older workers (age 45 and plus). Institutional differences and the appeal of outside option (option of exiting the labour force) may contribute to explain these patterns.

Keywords: Training, hours constraints, older workers, organizational change, technology change

JEL Classification: J1, J2, J6, O33

Suggested Citation

Magnani, Lisa, Older Workers' Training Opportunities in Times of Workplace Innovation (December 21, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2009098 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2009098

Lisa Magnani (Contact Author)

Macquarie University, Macquarie Business School ( email )

New South Wales 2109
Australia

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