Education, skill formation and inequality: An introduction

Abstract

in the labour market. The finding is robust with the use of the quantile regression approach, controlling for firm and worker specific information. One plausible explan-ation is that the Stolper – Samuelson theorem, which assumes that increasing international trade will decrease the skill wage, is unlikely to hold in the context of a developing economy, where the skilled labour is in short supply. Robert P. Giloth ’ s paper, entitled ‘ The role of intermediaries in US workforce and education innovation ’ , analyses the role of intermediaries in the US education and workforce domains in terms of overcoming fragmented institutions and solving mismatch problems. This study explores five mismatches prevalent in the US labour market and their associated intermediary solutions, including organising business to improve human resources, creating improved pathways from school to work, integrat-ing and emphasising multiple education investments, linking workforce and economic development, and improving access to and use of data for design, performance man-agement and advocacy. In conclusion, the study suggests that intermediaries have been most effective in the US when aligned with education and workforce system improve-ment and redesign, not as parallel and separate efforts. The result may also provide implications for other countries that use intermediaries as a potential institutional solu-tion to the labour market mismatch.