Men at Work in a Land Down-Under: Testing Some Predictions of Human Capital Theory

Abstract

We use new training data from waves 3-6 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to investigate training and wages of full-time men. We explore the extent to which the data are consistent with the predictions of human capital theory or with recent alternative theories based on imperfectly competitive labour markets. According to the raw data, most work-related training received by full-time private-sector men is general, but it is also paid for by employers. Our fixed effects estimates reveal that this training is associated with higher wages in current and in future firms, and that the effect in future firms is larger and more precisely determined. These results are more consistent with the predictions of human capital theory based on imperfectly competitive labour markets than with the alternative of perfect competition.