Do Soft Skills Courses Pay for Individuals? Evidence from German Matched Data

Do Soft Skills Courses Pay for Individuals? Evidence from German Matched Data | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Do Soft Skills Courses Pay for Individuals? Evidence from German Matched Data Mahdi Gholami, Samuel Mühlemann This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8434929/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Soft skills are widely promoted as levers for productivity and as enablers for digital and green transitions. Linking soft-skills training courses with German employer–employee records for 2010–2020, we track 5,439 full-time workers, including 549 participants in non-formal soft-skills training typically financed by employers. A staggered event-study design finds no post-training changes in daily wages, span of control, leadership status, or job satisfaction for up to three years. In Germany’s compressed-wage setting, where firms hold considerable monopsony power, this pattern is consistent with two interpretations: either these courses produce relatively small productivity effects, or firms capture most of any productivity gains rather than sharing them through higher pay. We discuss how portable Individual Learning Accounts and targeted subsidies could, in principle, strengthen worker returns, while acknowledging that more evidence on productivity effects is needed before drawing firm policy conclusions. JEL codes: J24; J28; J31; M53; I26 soft skills employer training wages span of control leadership job satisfaction monopsony event study Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8434929","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":573351454,"identity":"eea81480-48be-4f96-8b75-327e0f97ab76","order_by":0,"name":"Mahdi 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