Volume 28, Number 3 (Summer) 1993

Hotchkiss, Lawrence. 1993. "Effects of Training, Occupation, and Training-Occupation Match on Wage." Journal of Human Resources 28(3):482-496.

This paper investigates the interactions of secondary vocational training and training-related occupations on the wage of the first job obtained in the two years immediately after high school. Prior empirical tests of the importance of a training-related occupation in determining labor market outcomes are misspecified because they do not separate training-related effects from effects of the type of occupation entered. Since the concept of a training-related occupation is based on a match between the type of training and the type of occupation, it is possible that apparent effects of a training-related occupation are, in fact, only an effect of the occupation with which the training is matched.

    We use data from the younger cohort of the High School and Beyond sample to conduct an evaluation of the importance of a training-related occupation. Our findings agree with past research in that large positive coefficients are associated with work in a training-related occupation when the type of occupation is omitted from the model. However, when the type of occupation is included, nearly all the effects on wage are associated with occupation and not with training nor with a training-related occupation. Estimates from both OLS and switching regressions are consistent with these conclusions.