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Building on Lazear's skill weights approach, [the authors] study the effect of having more or less heterogeneity in the training curriculum on the demand for and supply of apprentices. Modernizations of training curricula provide a quasi-experimental setting as these modernizations can be seen as a relatively exogenous shock. [The authors] argue that firms will train more apprentices when they have more choice options in the training curriculum because of (1) the higher productivity of graduates who have acquired more skills that are relevant for the firm, and (2) firms' higher market power in the wage bargaining process with graduates. [The authors] test this hypothesis on data on the demand for apprentices in Germany in all occupations from 2004 to 2014. [They] find that a more heterogeneous curriculum increases both firms' demand for and the supply of apprentices.

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Building on Lazear's skill weights approach, the authors study the effect of having more or less heterogeneity in the training curriculum on supply of and demand for apprenticeship training. Modernizations of training curricula provide a quasi-experimental setting as these modernizations can be seen as a relatively exogenous shock. The authors argue that firms will train more apprentices when they have more choice options in the training curriculum because of (1) the higher productivity of graduates who have acquired more skills that are relevant for the firm and (2) firms' higher market power in the wage bargaining process with graduates. The authors test this hypothesis on data on the supply of apprenticeship places in Germany in all occupations from 2004 to 2014. The authors find that a more heterogeneous curriculum increases both firms' supply of and students' demand for training places.

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