Varieties of Capitalism and Investments in Human Capital

Abstract

This paper uses a large-scale database to test the link between corporate governance regimes (specifically, the varieties of capitalism literature), investment in training and economic performance. The evidence presented here does not match with common assumptions that countries can be classified into Anglo-Saxon and other forms of capitalism, supporting a considerable body of the more empirically orientated literature on employment security and human resource development. We propose a new categorization of countries that links types of broad corporate governance regimes and associated sets of regulations with the relative propensity of firms to engage in specific types of investment towards a core stakeholder: employees.

Keywords: capitalist systems, corporate governance systems, employment practices

JEL Classification: G30, P10, J24, O15