{"id":434156,"date":"2025-09-24T11:37:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wifo.ac.at\/publication\/434156\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T11:45:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:45:52","slug":"time-off-to-upgrade-skills-the-labour-market-effects-of-a-large-scale-educational-leave-programme","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/www.wifo.ac.at\/en\/publication\/434156\/","title":{"rendered":"Time Off to Upgrade Skills: The Labour Market Effects of a Large-Scale Educational Leave Programme"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-434156","publication","type-publication","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"subtitle":"","text":"This paper combines a counterfactual impact analysis using rich administrative data with a participant survey to assess the long-term labour market effects of Austria's large-scale educational leave programme. The scheme allows eligible employees to take full- or part-time leave for further education, supported by income-compensating benefits. We find that participation substantially increases monthly earnings but does not improve employment probability. Full-time leave reduces employment in the short term and modestly in the long term, offsetting wage gains and resulting in no increase in cumulative earnings. Part-time leave yields even larger monthly wage increases and clear cumulative earnings gains, with no significant employment effects.","onlinedate":"2025-09-24 09:37:19","lang":"English","publication_series":"","publication_date":"20250924","publication_date_year":"","publication_date_full":true,"publication_num_pages":"45","keywords":"[\"Educational leave\",\"continuing education\",\"labour-market outcomes\"]","jelcodes":"[\"H52\",\"I26\",\"I28\",\"J24\"]","related_publications":"[]","pdf":434160,"zip":null,"link":"","monthly_report":true,"monthly_report_main":false,"monthly_report_volume":"","monthly_report_pages":"","monthly_report_pages_sort":"0","issue":"712","journal":"WIFO Working Papers","publisher":"","invisible":false,"external":false,"embargo_date":null,"types":[44410],"research_groups":[3510],"collaboration":"","persons":[4917,3581,4401,3684,3553],"persons_data":"[{\"personId\":4917,\"personName\":\"Benjamin Bittschi\",\"organisationNames\":[]},{\"personId\":3581,\"personName\":\"Rainer Eppel\",\"organisationNames\":[]},{\"personId\":4401,\"personName\":\"Ulrike Famira-M\u00fchlberger\",\"organisationNames\":[]},{\"personId\":3684,\"personName\":\"Helmut Mahringer\",\"organisationNames\":[]},{\"personId\":3553,\"personName\":\"Christine Zulehner\",\"organisationNames\":[]}]","clients":[10980],"subclients":[],"partners":[],"topics":[],"host_publication_title":"","host_publication_subtitle":"","place_of_publication":"","host_publication_editors":"[]","type_description":"","output_media":"","chapter":"","article_number":"","citations":"{\"apa\":\"<div class=\\\"rendering rendering_researchoutput  rendering_researchoutput_apa rendering_contributiontoperiodical rendering_apa rendering_contributiontoperiodical_apa\\\"><span>Bittschi, B.<\\\/span><span>, Eppel, R.<\\\/span><span>, Famira-M\u00fchlberger, U.<\\\/span><span>, Mahringer, H.<\\\/span><span>, &amp; Zulehner, C.<\\\/span> (2025). <span>Time Off to Upgrade Skills: The Labour Market Effects of a Large-Scale Educational Leave Programme<\\\/span>. <span><em>WIFO Working Papers<\\\/em><\\\/span>, (712).<\\\/div>\",\"vancouver\":\"<div class=\\\"rendering rendering_researchoutput  rendering_researchoutput_vancouver rendering_contributiontoperiodical rendering_vancouver rendering_contributiontoperiodical_vancouver\\\"><span>Bittschi B<\\\/span><span>, Eppel R<\\\/span><span>, Famira-M\u00fchlberger U<\\\/span><span>, Mahringer H<\\\/span><span>, Zulehner C<\\\/span>. <span class=\\\"title\\\"><span>Time Off to Upgrade Skills: The Labour Market Effects of a Large-Scale Educational Leave Programme<\\\/span><\\\/span>. <span>WIFO Working Papers<\\\/span>. 2025 Sept 24;(712).<\\\/div>\",\"bibtex\":\"<div class=\\\"rendering rendering_researchoutput  rendering_researchoutput_bibtex rendering_contributiontoperiodical rendering_bibtex rendering_contributiontoperiodical_bibtex\\\"><div>@misc{a3edd9a4eefb4787bfa2e895121e104f,<\\\/div><div>  title    = \\\"Time Off to Upgrade Skills: The Labour Market Effects of a Large-Scale Educational Leave Programme\\\",<\\\/div><div>  abstract = \\\"This paper combines a counterfactual impact analysis using rich administrative data with a participant survey to assess the long-term labour market effects of Austria's large-scale educational leave programme. The scheme allows eligible employees to take full- or part-time leave for further education, supported by income-compensating benefits. We find that participation substantially increases monthly earnings but does not improve employment probability. Full-time leave reduces employment in the short term and modestly in the long term, offsetting wage gains and resulting in no increase in cumulative earnings. Part-time leave yields even larger monthly wage increases and clear cumulative earnings gains, with no significant employment effects.\\\",<\\\/div><div>  keywords = \\\"Educational leave, continuing education, labour-market outcomes\\\",<\\\/div><div>  author   = \\\"Benjamin Bittschi and Rainer Eppel and Ulrike Famira-M{\\\\\\\"u}hlberger and Helmut Mahringer and Christine Zulehner\\\",<\\\/div><div>  year     = \\\"2025\\\",<\\\/div><div>  month    = sep,<\\\/div><div>  day      = \\\"24\\\",<\\\/div><div>  language = \\\"English\\\",<\\\/div><div>  journal  = \\\"WIFO Working Papers\\\",<\\\/div><p>}<\\\/p><\\\/div>\",\"ris\":\"<div class=\\\"rendering rendering_researchoutput  rendering_researchoutput_ris rendering_contributiontoperiodical rendering_ris rendering_contributiontoperiodical_ris\\\"><p>TY  - GEN<\\\/p><p>T1  - Time Off to Upgrade Skills: The Labour Market Effects of a Large-Scale Educational Leave Programme<\\\/p><p>AU  - Bittschi, Benjamin<\\\/p><p>AU  - Eppel, Rainer<\\\/p><p>AU  - Famira-M\u00fchlberger, Ulrike<\\\/p><p>AU  - Mahringer, Helmut<\\\/p><p>AU  - Zulehner, Christine<\\\/p><p>PY  - 2025\\\/9\\\/24<\\\/p><p>Y1  - 2025\\\/9\\\/24<\\\/p><p>N2  - This paper combines a counterfactual impact analysis using rich administrative data with a participant survey to assess the long-term labour market effects of Austria's large-scale educational leave programme. The scheme allows eligible employees to take full- or part-time leave for further education, supported by income-compensating benefits. We find that participation substantially increases monthly earnings but does not improve employment probability. Full-time leave reduces employment in the short term and modestly in the long term, offsetting wage gains and resulting in no increase in cumulative earnings. Part-time leave yields even larger monthly wage increases and clear cumulative earnings gains, with no significant employment effects.<\\\/p><p>AB  - This paper combines a counterfactual impact analysis using rich administrative data with a participant survey to assess the long-term labour market effects of Austria's large-scale educational leave programme. The scheme allows eligible employees to take full- or part-time leave for further education, supported by income-compensating benefits. We find that participation substantially increases monthly earnings but does not improve employment probability. Full-time leave reduces employment in the short term and modestly in the long term, offsetting wage gains and resulting in no increase in cumulative earnings. Part-time leave yields even larger monthly wage increases and clear cumulative earnings gains, with no significant employment effects.<\\\/p><p>KW  - Educational leave<\\\/p><p>KW  - continuing education<\\\/p><p>KW  - labour-market outcomes<\\\/p><p>M3  - WIFO series<\\\/p><p>JO  - WIFO Working Papers<\\\/p><p>JF  - WIFO Working Papers<\\\/p><p>ER  - <\\\/p><\\\/div>\"}","scientific_assistance":"[]","scientific_review":"[]","version":"","release_date":null,"expiration_date":null,"surveyor":"","research_assistance":"","edv":"","additional_info_de":"","additional_info_en":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Time Off to Upgrade Skills: The Labour Market Effects of a Large-Scale Educational Leave Programme - WIFO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wifo.ac.at\/en\/publication\/434156\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Time Off to Upgrade Skills: The Labour Market Effects of a Large-Scale Educational Leave Programme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wifo.ac.at\/en\/publication\/434156\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WIFO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WIFOat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-24T09:45:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wifo.ac.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/WIFO-Gebaeude-FotoAlexanderMueller-www.alexandermueller.at-IMG_6326-Bearbeitet-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@WIFOat\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.wifo.ac.at\\\/en\\\/publication\\\/434156\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.wifo.ac.at\\\/en\\\/publication\\\/434156\\\/\",\"name\":\"Time Off to Upgrade Skills: The Labour Market Effects of a Large-Scale Educational Leave Programme - 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