Call for papers: Skills for Growth. The Ratio Colloquium for Young Social Scientists 2015 Stockholm, August 20-22.

Extended Deadline

The Ratio Institute hereby invites young scholars, including graduate students, in fields such as education, economics, political science, business administration, sociology and economic history to submit paper proposals for a cross disciplinary colloquium in Stockholm. The aim of this colloquium is to bring together researchers in different fields working on skills, vocational education, on-the-job-training, youth unemployment, validation and labour market issues from a competence, innovation and growth perspective.

Despite massive investments in education in many countries there are major skills shortages in many private as well as public sectors, often over the entire business cycle. At the same time unemployment is high, especially among the young and immigrants. This indicate that there are major problems with quality, efficiency and relevance in the educational systems, tendencies towards over-education and mis-education as well as inefficient learning environments and lack of practical skills. This has severe consequences for employment and growth. The problems involved deserve to be studied a lot more.

The colloquium is a two-day workshop and includes both paper sessions and two keynote lectures held by internationally distinguished scholars within the fields of skills formation and education especially vocational education.

We are delighted to already today present Professor Paul Ryan at Kings College Cambridge and Professor Jonas Olofsson at Ratio and Malmö University as our keynote speakers. Paul Ryan will hold his lecture on the Economic aspects of apprenticeship. His research focuses on the political economy of vocational education and apprenticeship training as well as imperfect competition and price formation in training markets. Jonas Olofsson has done plenty of research on education and the supply of skills to the labour market as well as the role of vocational education and apprenticeship training.

For this colloquium we especially welcome papers dealing with the following issues:

– Growth, innovation and learning

– Wage-formation and skills

– Causes of youth unemployment

– Labour-market competence mismatch

– Vocational education and innovation

– The challenges of on-the-job-training

– Validation of skills and practical knowledge

– Policies to diminish these problems

Both theoretical and empirical papers are considered. The papers submitted are expected to be work in progress: It should be more than ideas, but still unpublished papers.

– Both the colloquium and hotel accommodation for the participants will be free of charge.

– Ratio will reimburse reasonable (economy class) travel expenses for all participants.

– The number of accepted papers is limited to 16. Discussants will be appointed to each

An application consists of the following:

– A one or two page abstract of the planned paper or a complete paper

– A one page summary of your research interests

Extended deadline: Submit a paper proposal no later than April 1, 2015. Send a complete paper or, if this is not yet available, a description of the paper (one A4 page). Attach your cv. Applicants will be notified of whether they are accepted or not by April 15, 2015. Eligible for application: Ph.D. students and researchers (postdocs, ass. professors etc.) that have received their Ph.D. within 5 years prior to the date of application (i.e. after April 14, Venue: The workshop will be held at the Ratio Institute on Sveavägen 59 in the centre of Stockholm. Lodging will be at Hotel Birger Jarl nearby.

Submission and enquiries: karl.axelsson@ratio.se

In charge of this colloquium are Professor Jonas Olofsson, Associate professor Nils Karlson, and Dr. Henrik Lindberg at the Ratio Institute in (www.ratio.se/en.aspx) which is an independent research institute in Stockholm, Sweden.