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Notes 263
may have general human capital aspects. For example, such a skill may be considered
general human capital within the industry if competing firms use similar machines.
20 Much of the following discussion on the rationales for government intervention in alleviating
structural unemployment in the labour market is adapted from M. Gunderson and C.Riddell,
“Training in Canada,” in A.Barry (ed.) Labour Market Policy in Canada and Latin America:
Challenges of a New Millennium (The Hague: Kluwer Academic Publishers, forthcoming).
See also John Donahue, The Privatization Decision: Public Ends, Private Means (New
York: Basic Books, 1989), pp. 189–96.
21 Of course, this agreement does not need to be explicit. It may be easier for employers to
implicitly impute some of the costs of employee training on to employees through reduced
wages or benefits, for instance.
22 Gunderson, supra note 7, p. 14. The degree to which this poaching problem exists will in
large part depend on how firm-specific and how extensive the training has been. If the skills
that the employer has equipped employees with are of value only to that particular employer,
which is unlikely, then the poaching problem will not exist. In the same way, if the training
that the employer has put the employee through has been of extremely short duration, then
poaching will also be only a minor issue. On the other hand, with extensive and portable
training, poaching may become a major problem for sponsoring employers.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid., pp. 14–15.
26 Ibid, p. 4.
27 Ibid., p. 3.
28 Ibid., p. 18.
29 Ibid., p. 7.
30 Ibid., p. 6.
31 Ibid., p. 3.
32 Fay, supra note 5, p. 43.
33 Jochen Kluve and Cristoph Schmidt, “Can training and employment subsidies combat
European unemployment?,” Economic Policy, 17(35) (2002), p. 438.
34 Ibid., p. 439. See also Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD
Economic Surveys: Canada (Paris: OECD, 2001), p. 144.
35 See Fay, supra note 5. See also Robert J. Lalonde, “The promise of public sector sponsored
training programs,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(2) (1995), p. 149; Duane E. Leigh,
Assisting Workers Displaced by Structural Change (Kalamazoo, MI: Upjohn Institute,
1995); and Duane E.Leigh, Does Training Work for Displaced Workers? (Kalamazoo, MI:
Upjohn Institute, 1990).
36 In Canada, the National Employment Service acts as a labour market intermediary by
providing assistance to the unemployed through employment centres, by the provision of
job-finding education and through the operation of “job clubs.”
37 In the United States, there are a variety of different state and local placement programs.
38 Fay, supra note 5, p. 23.
39 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, The OECD Jobs Strategy:
Enhancing the Effectiveness of Active Labour Market Policies (Paris: OECD, 1996), p. 11.
40 In John Van Reenen, “Active labour market policies and the British new deal for the young
unemployed in context,” NBER Working Papers No. 9576 (2003), p. 11.
41 OECD, supra note 12, p. 37.
42 Anita U.Hattiangadi, “Welfare changes accentuate the need for job training reform,” Fact &
Fallacy: Contempomry Issues in Employment and Workplace Policy, 3(4) (1997), available
at: http://www.epf.org/pubs/newsletters/1997/ff3–4.asp.
43 One feature of US programs that distinguishes them from most others is that they are
mandatory. Results here should be understood in that light.