MDI Program
Micro-data Infrastructure (MDI) Training The MDI Training is a three-session program designed to equip researchers (NPBs) with the skills to effectively work with cross-country…
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Centre for Business and Productivity Dynamics
Centre for Business and Productivity Dynamics (IWH-CBPD) The Centre for Business and Productivity Dynamics (CBPD) was founded in January 2025 and works with policy and research…
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9th vintage
9th Vintage CompNet Dataset The CompNet dataset includes a set of micro-aggregated indicators to enhance policy and academic analysis on competitiveness and productivity. All the…
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Firm Training, Automation, and Wages: International Worker-Level Evidence
Oliver Falck, Yuchen Guo, Christina Langer, Valentin Lindlacher, Simon Wiederhold
Abstract
Firm training is widely regarded as crucial for protecting workers from automation, yet there is a lack of empirical evidence to support this belief. Using internationally harmonized data from over 90,000 workers across 37 industrialized countries, we construct an individual-level measure of automation risk based on tasks performed at work. Our analysis reveals substantial within-occupation variation in automation risk, overlooked by existing occupation-level measures. To assess whether firm training mitigates automation risk, we exploit within-occupation and within-industry variation. Additionally, we employ entropy balancing to re-weight workers without firm training based on a rich set of background characteristics, including tested numeracy skills as a proxy for unobserved ability. We find that training reduces workers’ automation risk by 3.8 percentage points, equivalent to 8% of the average automation risk. The training-induced reduction in automation risk accounts for 15% of the wage returns to firm training. Firm training is effective in reducing automation risk and increasing wages across nearly all countries, underscoring the external validity of our findings. Training is similarly effective across gender, age, and education groups, suggesting widely shared benefits rather than gains concentrated in specific demographic segments.
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The Network
About IWH CompNet The Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet) is a leading European research initiative dedicated to advancing the understanding of competitiveness and…
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Department Profiles
Research Profiles of the IWH Departments All doctoral students are allocated to one of the four research departments (Financial Markets – Laws, Regulations and Factor Markets –…
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Past Events
Past Events 14. CompNet Annual Conference (Vilnius, 25-26 September 2025) The 14th CompNet Annual Conference, co-hosted with the Bank of Lithuania, took place on 25–26 September…
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Other Output
Books The Economics of Firm Productivity - Concepts, Tools and Evidence by Carlo Altomonte, Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milan & Filippo di Mauro, IWH-Halle and CompNet,…
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HKIMR Seminar Hong Kong
HKIMR Seminar Date: April 11, 2025 @ 10:30 AM Location: Hong Kong Institute for Monetary and Financial Research, Hong Kong Speaker: Filippo di Mauro (Founder and Chairman of…
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Virtual Conference on Sustainable development, firm performance and competitiveness policies in small open economies
Virtual Conference on Sustainable development, firm performance and competitiveness policies in small open economies This Conference has been jointly organised by CompNet and…
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