Firms and Institutions: The Demand for Skills and their Social Production in Europe

Abstract

It is commonly argued that national economic performance is enhanced by a `surplus' of workers with extensive and well-developed skills, and that this is best achieved by a training system such as that in Germany, where employers are institutionally inhibited from `free-riding' on other firms' investment in human resources. On the basis of a comparative study of France, Germany, Italy and Spain, the author argues that this is an oversimplification. Firms can choose among a variety of production strategies; and each choice implies a different pattern of workforce composition and training. Training regimes different from the much-vaunted German model can be well suited to specific production and market strategies.

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