Does adult training benefit Canadian workers?

Aperçu

Résumé (français)

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Résumé (anglais)

Using longitudinal data for Canada, the probability of participating in employer supported course enrollment for mid career workers and the wage impacts of those adult educational investments are analyzed. Probability of participation in employer supported course enrolment is increasing with age, job tenure and education, and is lower for visible minority workers. Using a parametric difference-in-differences model to minimize the effects of selection into training, we find strong positive effects of employer supported course enrollment on wage changes over time. The estimated effect ranges from 6.8 to 7.7 percent wage growth for men and 7.5 to 9.3 percent wage growth for women. When the linear specification of the outcome equation is relaxed and an empirical common support is implemented through semiparametric difference-in-differences matching methods, the average treatment effect on the treated estimates from the log wage change models were smaller in magnitude than the corresponding parametric estimates but were typically still statistically significant and in the range of 4.2 to 7.6 percent for men and 7.6 to 7.1 percent for women. An analysis of respondents’ health outcomes shows no clear relationship with participation in employer supported course enrollment.