How specific is apprenticeship training? Evidence from inter-firm and occupational mobility after graduation

Do apprenticeships convey mainly general or also firm- and occupation-specific human capital? Specific human capital may allow for specialization gains, but may also lead to allocative inefficiency due to mobility barriers. We analyse the case of Switzerland, which combines a comprehensive, high-quality apprenticeship system with a lightly regulated labour market. To assess human capital transferability after standardized firm-based apprenticeship training, we analyse inter-firm and occupational mobility and their effects on post-training wages. Using a longitudinal data set based on the PISA 2000 survey, we find high inter-firm and low occupational mobility within one year after graduation. Accounting for endogenous changes, we find a negative effect of occupation changes on wages, but no significant wage effect for firm changes. This indicates that occupation-specific human capital is an important component of apprenticeship training and that skills are highly transferable within an occupational field.

The Entrepreneurial Theory of the Firm and the Theory of the Entrepreneurial Firm

The entrepreneurial theory of the firm argues that entrepreneurship, properly understood, is a crucial but neglected element in explaining the nature and boundaries of the firm. By contrast, the theory of the entrepreneurial firm presumably seeks not to understand the nature and boundaries of "the firm" in general but rather to understand a particular type of firm: one that is entrepreneurial. This paper is an attempt to reconcile the two. After briefly delving for the concept of entrepreneurship in the work of Schumpeter, Kirzner, and (especially) Knight, the paper makes the case for the entrepreneurial theory of the firm. In such a theory, the firm exists as the solution to a coordination problem in a world of change and uncertainty, including Knightian or structural uncertainty. Taking a historical or developmental perspective, the paper then examines the changing nature of the entrepreneurial coordination problem over the life-cycle. In this formulation, "the entrepreneurial firm" is a nascent firm or proto-firm facing a problem of coordinating systemic change in economic capabilities. Lacking (by definition) adequate guidance from existing systems of rules of conduct embedded in markets or organizations, the entrepreneurial firm typically relies on a form of organization Max Weber called charismatic authority. In the end, although there is no such thing as a non-entrepreneurial firm, firms that must solve coordination problems in a world of novelty and systemic change ("entrepreneurial firms") are perhaps the purest case of the entrepreneurial theory of the firm.

Technical Efficiency in the Indian Textiles Industry: A Nonparametric Analysis of Firm-Level Data

The Indian textiles industry is now at the crossroads with the phasing out of quota regime that prevailed under the Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) until the end of 2004. In the face of a full integration of the textiles sector in the WTO, maintaining and enhancing productive efficiency is a precondition for competitiveness of the Indian firms in the new liberalized world market. In this paper we use data obtained from the Annual Survey of Industries for a number of years to measure the levels of technical efficiency in the Indian textiles industry at the firm level. We use both a grand frontier applicable to all firms and a group frontier specific to firms from any individual state, ownership, or organization type in order to evaluate their efficiencies. This permits us to separately identify how locational, proprietary, and organizational characteristics of a firm affect its performance.

Boston

A. S. Waldstein

Eugenio Pucciarelli, Los rostros del humanismo. Estudio preliminar de Malena Lasala. Buenos Aires, Fundación Banco de Boston, 1987,126 pp.

Fil: Jalif de Bertranou, Clara Alicia. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

Peretó Rivas, Rubén (ed.). Tolerancia. Teoría y práctica en la Edad Media, Brepols Publishers, Porto- Turhnout, 2012, 295 pp. ISBN: 978-2-503-54553-0.

La obra que aquí presentamos, editada por el Dr. Rubén Peretó Rivas y publicada por la prestigiosa editorial belga Brepols, es el fruto de una buena parte de los trabajos presentados en el marco de las VII Jornadas Internacionales de Pensamiento Medieval y del Coloquio Anual de la Federación Internacional de Institutos de Estudios Medievales (FIDEM). Ambas reuniones científicas fueron realizadas del 15 al 18 de junio del año pasado en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, en Mendoza. En estos encuentros académicos participaron numerosos especialistas de Latinoamérica, Europa y Estados Unidos. Asimismo, fue la primera vez que el Coloquio Anual de la FIDEM se realiza fuera del continente europeo. El presente ejemplar lleva por nombre Tolerancia. Teoría y práctica en la Edad Media. Se trata de un título que plantea inicialmente una discusión. En efecto, no hay acuerdo entre los estudiosos acerca de sí, efectivamente, podemos hablar de tolerancia en el Medioevo. Este nuevo volumen que llega a la comunidad académica muestra a ojos vista las prolíficas, originales y vigorosas tesis de diversas fuentes medievales en torno a la noción y a la práctica de la tolerancia. Asimismo, a nuestro juicio, el ejemplar de marras deja entrever el rigor y claridad con que cada investigador ha sabido abordar su estudio, y también el esmero y la cuidadosa edición e introducción de su editor, el Dr. Rubén Peretó Rivas. No nos queda más que invitar al lector al encuentro del presente estudio que, según creemos -y sin que el mismo posea una intención explícita -pone en tela de juicio diversos preconceptos históricos que suelen tenerse sobre la Edad Media y evidencia, además, que la teoría y la práctica de la tolerancia se ven enriquecida a través de los aportes de tantos y variados pensadores que atravesaron el período medieval.

Irven M. Resnick (Ed.), A companion to Albert the Great. Theology, Philosophy and the sciences, Leiden- Boston, Brill, 2013, ISBN 978-90-04-23407-9, 833 págs.

Fil: Costarelli Brandi, Hugo Emilio. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo