Supply Shocks in the Market for Apprenticeship Training

This chapter covers the economic fundamentals of commodity markets (i.e., what shapes the evolution of the price of raw materials) in three steps. First, it covers the theories explaining why the futures curve can be upward or downward sloping, an essential element for commodity producing companies. The evolution of inventories and hedging pressures are the two dominant sources of explanation. Second, the chapter reviews the fundamentals of commodity spot prices: technologies, supply, demand, and speculation. Production costs draw the long-term evolution of prices, but demand and supply shocks can trigger substantial variations in commodity prices. Third, the chapter presents how commodity prices interact with the business cycle. Commodities are influenced by the world activity but can also have a material impact on it.

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On the Direct and Indirect Real Effects of Credit Supply Shocks

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3132984 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Laura Alfaro ◽

Manuel Garcca-Santana ◽

Enrique Moral-Benito

Keyword(s):

Real Effects ◽

Credit Supply ◽

Supply Shocks

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The costs of standardized apprenticeship curricula for training firms

Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training ◽

10.1186/s40461-021-00120-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jürg Schweri ◽

Manuel Aepli ◽

Andreas Kuhn

Keyword(s):

Regulatory Element ◽

Recent Survey ◽

Skills Development ◽

Costs And Benefits ◽

Apprenticeship Training ◽

Training Costs ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Training Content ◽

Productive Process ◽

Productive Output

AbstractStandardized curricula define the set of skills that must be trained within a training occupation and thus are a key regulatory element of apprenticeship systems. Although clear economic rationales support the usage of such curricula, they necessarily impose costs, especially on firms that train apprentices, but do not use the full set of skills in their productive process and/or train other skills that are not covered by the curriculum. In this paper, we identify the trade-offs involved in setting up training curricula and use data from the most recent survey on the costs and benefits of apprenticeship training among Swiss firms to quantify the associated costs to training firms. On average, training firms state that they do not use 17% of the training content prescribed by the relevant curriculum, and 11% of the companies train additional skills not covered by the curriculum. We show that both kinds of misfit are associated with higher training costs and lower productive output from apprentices. This shows that the regulator imposes costs on firms in order to guarantee broad skills development for apprentices. It also cautions against overly broad curricula that may impose disproportionate costs on firms.

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Job mobility and heterogeneous returns to apprenticeship training in Italy

British Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.1111/bjir.12633 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Giorgio d'Agostino ◽

Michele Raitano ◽

Margherita Scarlato

Keyword(s):

Job Mobility ◽

Apprenticeship Training

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Tracking inflation on a daily basis

Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics ◽

10.1186/s41937-020-00062-w ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 156 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Santiago E. Alvarez ◽

Sarah M. Lein

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Price Index ◽

Daily Basis ◽

Relative Importance ◽

Online Data ◽

Demand And Supply ◽

Supply Shocks ◽

Policy Measures ◽

Real Time Information ◽

Time Information

Abstract Using online data for prices and real-time debit card transaction data on changes in expenditures for Switzerland allows us to track inflation on a daily basis. While the daily price index fluctuates around the official price index in normal times, it drops immediately after the lockdown related to the COVID19 pandemic. Official statistics reflect this drop only with a lag, specifically because data collection takes time and is impeded by lockdown conditions. Such daily real-time information can be useful to gauge the relative importance of demand and supply shocks and thus inform policymakers who need to determine appropriate policy measures.

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