Abstract
The data used in this paper were collected by the “Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)” and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and are documented in the German “Zentralarchiv für Empirische Sozialforschung (ZA).” Neither the producers of the data nor the ZA bear any responsibility for the analysis and interpretation of the data in this paper. This study is partially funded by the Swiss Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology through its Leading House on the Economics of Education, Firm Behavior and Training Policies. For comments and suggestions the authors are grateful to Ulrich Kaiser, Jens Mohrenweiser, and Andrew Oswald, and participants in the T.A.S.K.S workshop, the EALE in Cyprus, and discussants at the SMYE in Groningen.