Intra-firm Wage Compression and Cost Coverage of Training: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data

The author uses German linked employer-employee data to estimate the impact of intra-firm wage dispersion on the probability that establishments pay for further training. About half of all establishments in the estimation sample cover all direct and indirect training costs, which contradicts the standard human capital approach with perfect labor markets. The main finding of cross-section, panel, and instrumental variable probit estimations is that establishments with larger intra-firm wage compression are more likely to cover all direct and indirect training costs, which is consistent with theoretical considerations of the “new training literature” about imperfect labor markets.