BackgroundBy applying the inventory theory to hiring skilled workers under uncertainty, the authors explain how firms decide on their optimum investment in an “inventory of skills.” This paper investigates the conditions under which firms are willing to make investments in a skilled workforce themselves rather than relying on skills produced within the education system or by other companies. By applying inventory theory to investments into apprenticeship training, the authors explain how firms decide on producing an optimum “inventory of skills” today to meet future demand. The authors derive hypotheses on how much firms are willing to invest in having a larger inventory of skilled workers depending on different types of inventory costs (overage costs, underage costs, demand structure).MethodsThe authors use data from the BIBB Cost–Benefit-Survey 2012/2013, which comprises detailed information on different costs and benefits of training investments from the firm’s perspective. The study applies a negative binomial estimation model.ResultsResults are threefold: firms are willing to invest in a larger inventory of skilled workers, i.e., to train more apprentices, first, if the costs of producing and retaining an excessive number of skilled workers (overage costs) are lower, second, if the costs of being short of skilled workers (underage costs) are higher, and third, given an identical cost structure, if it is more likely that the demand for skilled workers may be high in the future. Even more important is the relationship of the three: the combination of a firm’s critical ratio (underage costs in relation to overage costs) with its demand structure (industry volatility) is associated with a higher inventory of skills.ConclusionThe findings (particularly the relation of underage and overage costs, in combination with the demand structure) have important policy implications for firms’ incentives to invest in apprenticeship training.

中文翻译：

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另一个难题是：企业将培训投资用于生产最佳技能库存

背景作者通过将库存理论应用于不确定性下的熟练工人的雇用，作者解释了企业如何决定对“技能库存”的最佳投资。本文研究了在何种条件下企业愿意自己投资于技术熟练的劳动力，而不是依赖于教育系统或其他公司产生的技能。通过将库存理论应用于投资学徒培训中，作者解释了企业如何决定今天生产最佳的“技能库存”以满足未来需求。作者根据不同类型的库存成本（超额成本，不足成本，需求结构）得出有关企业愿意投资多少以增加熟练工人库存的假设。方法作者使用来自BIBB成本－收益调查2012/2013的数据，该数据包括从公司的角度了解培训投资的不同成本和收益的详细信息。该研究采用负二项式估计模型。结果有三个方面：公司愿意投资大量库存的熟练工人，即，如果生产和保留过多的熟练工人的成本（超额），则要培训更多的学徒。成本较低；其次，如果缺少熟练工人的成本（未成年工成本）较高，则第三，如果成本结构相同，则将来对熟练工人的需求较高的可能性更大。两者之间的关系更为重要：