The Participation of Female Immigrants in Vocational Training

This paper studies the transition of female immigrants from the former Soviet Union to the Israeli labor market and their participation in government-sponsored training programs. To study the determinants of the duration to training we estimate a Cox proportional hazard model. We Þnd that higher education leads to a signiÞcantly shorter duration to training, whereas immigrants who were older at arrival have a longer duration to training. We formulate a life-cycle model for the integrated labor supply and participation in training decisions. According to the model, the investment in human capital is endogenous and takes two forms: accumulating occupation-speciÞc work experience through an active participation in the Israeli labor market and participating in a government-sponsored classroom training, during which, the immigrant is not allowed to work. Simulating the model under the assumption that training administrators allow free entry to training programs, we are able to generate the observed peak in the participation in training during the third and fourth quarter after arrival, and a moderate decline in the participation rate after one year of residency in Israel. ∗ Tel Aviv University and Boston University ([email protected]),Tel Aviv University ([email protected]).