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To be a part of this online event, please email Professor Maren Elfert to receive the link.

The political economy of skills formation represents a complex area of international research, since it explores the convergence between public policy ambitions and market economy. This particularly applies to Vocational Education and Training (VET) policy, which sees private sector involvement in skills formation as fundamental. Employers’ needs became a core narrative for new policy reforms and initiatives. Simultaneously, economic development policy was localised. Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) were introduced as the new institutions to govern local economic growth in England. Skills were designed to be a prominent priority area in the work of LEPs.

In this policy context, this paper conceptualises the problem of training under-investment as the collective-action problem of firms free-riding, which sees too few employers investing in training, too few well-rounded technicians trained, and an overall reliance on poaching which weakens trust amongst firms. The paper explores to what extent local institutions of governance such as LEPs can address this problem, and introduces the reader to local club-like institutional arrangements, which are employer-led and have the potential to answer the following question: can human capital be supplied as a club good? The findings will be illustrated with case study evidence of LEPs with automotive/aerospace as their growth sectors, and firms in automotive and aerospace industries across England. The theoretical point of departure of this paper is Elinor and Vincent Ostrom’ polycentric governance, and James Buchanan’s theory of club goods.

carmen-nicoara-portrait

About the speaker

Carmen Nicoara is a PhD candidate in Political Economy Research in the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy at King’s College London.

To be a part of this online event, please email Professor Maren Elfert to receive the link.

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