Sector-Specific Training and Mobility in Germany

This article studies mobility patterns of German workers in light of a model of sector-specific human capital. Furthermore, I employ and describe little-used data on continuous on-the-job training occurring after apprenticeships. Results are presented describing the incidence and duration of continuous training. Continuous training is quite common, despite the high incidence of apprenticeships which precedes this part of a worker's career. Most previous studies have only distinguished between firm-specific and general human capital, usually concluding that training was general. Inconsistent with those conclusions, I show that German men are more likely to find a job within the same sector if they have received continuous training in that sector. These results are similar to those obtained for young U.S. workers, and suggest that sector-specific capital is an important feature of very different labor markets. In addition, they suggest that the observed effect of training on mobility is sensible to the state of the business cycle, indicating a more complex interaction between supply and demand that most theoretical models allow for.

Sector-Specific on-the-Job Training: Evidence from U.S. Data.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we re-examine the effect of formal on-the-job training on mobility patterns of young American workers. By employing parametric duration models, we evaluate the economic impact of training on productive time with an employer. Confirming previous studies, we find a positive and statistically significant impact of formal on-the-job training on tenure with the employer providing the training. However, the expected net duration of the time spent in the training program is generally not significantly increased. We proceed to document and analyze intra-sectoral and cross-sectoral mobility patterns in order to infer whether training provides firm-specific, industry-specific, or general human capital. The econometric analysis rejects a sequential model of job separation in favor of a competing risks specification. We find significant evidence for the industry-specificity of training. The probability of sectoral mobility upon job separation decreases with training received in the current industry, whether with the last employer or previous employers, and employment attachment increases with on-the-job training. These results are robust to a number of variations on the base model.

Influence of experience and training on dental students’ examination performance regarding panoramic images.

Physician training has greatly benefitted from insights gained in understanding the manner in which experts search medical images for abnormalities. The aims of this study were to compare the search patterns of 30 fourth-year dental students and 15 certified oral and maxillofacial radiologists (OMRs) over panoramic images and to determine the most robust variables for future studies involving image visualization. Eye tracking was used to capture the eye movement patterns of both subject groups when examining 20 panoramic images classified as normal or abnormal. Abnormal images were further subclassified as having an obvious, intermediate, or subtle abnormality. The images were presented in random order to each participant, and data were collected on duration of the participants’ observations and total distance tracked, time to first eye fixation, and total duration and numbers of fixations on and off the area of interest (AOI). The results showed that the OMRs covered greater distances than the dental students (p<0.001) for normal images. For images of pathosis, the OMRs required less total time (p<0.001), made fewer eye fixations (p<0.01) with fewer saccades (p<0.001) than the students, and required less time before making the first fixation on the AOI (p<0.01). Furthermore, the OMRs covered less distance (p<0.001) than the dental students for obvious pathoses. For investigations of images of pathosis, time to first fixation is a robust parameter in predicting ability. For images with different levels of subtlety of pathoses, the number of fixations, total time spent, and numbers of revisits are important parameters to analyze when comparing observer groups with different levels of experience.