Local norms describing the role of the state and the private provision of training

Apprenticeship systems are essentially based on the voluntary participation of firms that provide, and usually also finance, training positions, often incurring considerable net costs. One potential, yet under-researched explanation for this behavior is act in accordance with norms expectations they face local labor market which operate. In paper, we focus Swiss apprenticeship system ask whether towards private, rather than public, provision influence firms’ decisions to offer positions. line hypothesis, find incidence higher communities characterized by a stronger norm private training, measure using results from two national-level plebiscites explicitly dealt role state context system. This finding turns out be robust series alternative specifications robustness checks.