Training and wages of older workers in Europe

The financial deficits of many social security systems caused by ageing populations and stagnating economies are forcing workers to retire later from the labour market. An extended working life combined with rapid technological progress in many sectors, is likely making older workers’ skills obtained in school obsolete. In this context, lifelong investment in training is widely recognized among the international research and policy community as a key element to increase or at least limit the decline in productivity of older workers. This paper investigates the relationship between training undertaken by European older workers and their wages, relying on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. There is no evidence of training wage premium for older workers residing in many European countries including Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Very high premiums are instead found for Austria, Germany, Greece, and Italy. It is however likely that these high premiums are overestimated due to training endogeneity and sample selection bias.