Does informal learning at work differ between temporary and permanent workers? Evidence from 20 OECD countries

Abstract

This paper analyses the relationship between temporary employment and the intensity of on-the-job informal learning across 20 developed countries. Using microdata from the OECD's PIAAC survey, we estimate an instrumented endogenous switching regression model and find that temporary employees engage in on-the-job learning more intensively than their counterparts in permanent employment. We show that this higher intensity of informal learning does not substitute for temporary workers’ lower participation in formal training. Instead, both types of learning are complementary. Heterogeneous-effect analyses suggests that early career expectations of gaining a permanent contract could explain the higher informal learning investments of employees while in a temporary job.