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The aim of the paper is to identify the causal effect of the COVID-19 induced crisis on students' decisions about their educational plans. The authors hypothesise that students adjusted their decisions by delaying graduation, dropping out or change the field of education because of increased uncertainty about future employment and monetary returns.

The empirical approach is based on a survey done during the first wave of COVID-19 in Slovenia. The probability of dropping out, prolonging or stop-out is designed by applying probit and probit with insturmental variables empirical model.

Primary orientation towards work increases the probability of dropping out and financial constraints increase the probability of prolonging studies. The same holds after accounting for endogeneity. However, the authors do not find that poor job expectations due to COVID-19 affect students' decisions to prolong, drop-out or stop-out. The authors also find that the primary orientation toward work or study explains the differences in the probability of each outcome that is not influenced by enrolment in a particular field of study.

The results cannot be read as an objective prediction of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on college failures. However, the study provides insight into how students' expectations change their intentions to prolong, drop-out, or stop-out during periods of high uncertainty. The extent, to which measured intentions are realised, however, is uncertain.

Understanding the response diversity and motives behind students' study decisions represents extremely valuable insights for economic policy. Mapped apprehensions, augmented by heterogeneity in personal and financial characteristics, are relevant for policymakers. In terms of future research, it would be interesting to analyse what changes occurred over a five-year period, specifically which field of study was most affected by students' adjusted plans due to the pandemic.

Students have always been a special group in the labour market. After the initial shock of closing activities, studying online and the drastic decrease in student work due to COVID-19, the decision was made in spring 2020 to continue on the chosen path or not. This paper provides insight into the changing decision students made about their educational plans.

This paper is one of the first to highlight the implications of COVID-19 for the adaptation of student plans in the transition from school-to work in Europe. It departs from the classical literature of college failures, as specific macroeconomic conditions influence students to reconsider their educational decisions. Moreover, the paper also contributes to the rapidly growing literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on household-level labour market outcomes, particularly with respect to job search and labour supply decisions in general.

Industry 4.0 processes brought dramatic changes in skills and competences needed at the firm level. The purpose of this paper is: to identify and quantify key competences required for workers with economics-and-business background; to evaluate development level of those competences among the currently employed workforce; to investigate degree of match between required and currently developed competences; and finally to assess how this (mis)match translates to firm performance.

This research is based on primary data, collected through questionnaires, and secondary data of firms’ financial and structural characteristics. Key competences were estimated using factor analysis and were then used as covariates in explaining differences in firms’ performance in both static and dynamic production function specifications using standard regression model, Heckman selection model and Arellano–Bond estimation.

Results show that mismatches in competences basic algebra; collectedness, conflict resolution and presentation; and motivation and organization are all negatively associated in explaining the variation of firm performance, with motivation and organization having the most significant effect.

This paper focuses on competence mismatch by including both sides of the labor market (employers and employees) in the analysis. This paper offers: a theoretical structure for understanding and investigating existing competence mismatches; a step-by-step industry-driven method for deriving key required competences, including an initial exploratory phase (combination of literature review, exploratory interviews and pilot study) followed by a descriptive and implementation phases (design, implementation and analysis of nationally representative survey); and finally, analysis phase (associating competence mismatches to firm performance).

In the last decade the discussion on green innovations has gained in importance, both in practice and in academia. This chapter builds on the idea that performance in innovation capturing environmental aspects doesn’t depend only on inputs but also the synchronization of different stakeholders, firms and policy-makers that make an innovation-driven society. In disruptive periods, green adaptive ability which refers to ability to comply with environmental regulations is based on corporate environmental commitments and their social responsibility as well as on green human capital. Based on corporate environmental commitments, companies seek business opportunities by changing their business models as well as by integrating, building and reconfiguring competences to comply with environmental standards. Green human capital, on the other side, builds organizational culture that supports green innovation. The aim of this chapter is to present a conceptual model that stimulates green innovations at the company level and discusses the proper governance structure supportive of innovation and effective strategies of policy-making.

European Union (EU) as a whole has made modest short-term progress toward sustainable development goals (SDG). Only in one goal (ensuring healthy lives and promotion of well-being) out of 17, the progress was substantial. The most problematic goals, which show movements away from sustainable development objectives, are goals that are focused on building resilient infrastructure, promotion of inclusive, sustainable industrialization, fostering innovation, and the goal that takes urgent action to combat climate changes. The analysis between old and new EU members revealed that median new EU member has made bigger progress in the last five years. For 11 SDGs, the average score is lover for median new EU member compared to median old EU member. However, the last available level of the indicator is in general still more favorable for median old EU member compared to median new EU member.

The chapter describes the milestones at the global and European level on the path toward sustainable development. The first steps toward a different growth agenda were made in 1970s when the “Limits to growth” highlighted the divergence with the increasing needs of the growing population, the limited supply of resources, the planet can provide and the growing pollution. In 1980s the Brundtland report defined sustainable development as a three-dimensional one: economic, social and environmental, stressing not only the interplay between the goals, but also the global interdependence and the need for joint action to achieve the goals. Several ambitious strategies were prepared, most notably the Kyoto protocol, the Millenium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which are shaping global policies at the moment. The European Union has always been at the forefront of the efforts toward sustainability with its ambitious goals, which includes not only achieving SDGs, but also moving further, for example, toward a circular development approach.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the school‐to‐work transition of graduates in different fields of study, as well as to study programmes in three subsequent generations of graduates in the 2007 to 2009 period. The paper focuses on graduates from the new Bologna‐harmonised programmes and investigates their early career outcomes by comparing them to those of graduates from pre‐harmonised programmes.

The authors apply a probit regression to calculate differences in the probability of employment for different fields of study and propensity score matching to investigate the effect of different study programmes in each field of education on early career outcomes, such as being employed within the first three months of graduation and the first nine months of graduation.

The authors find that graduating from a particular field of study affects the probability of employment in all three years. In general, regardless of the field, the authors observe decreasing probabilities of employment in 2008 and 2009. Using propensity score matching, the authors estimate the effect of the new Bologna‐harmonised programmes on the probability of employment and find a statistically significant negative effect compared to counterparts who finished pre‐Bologna programmes. The findings are robust to the use of different matching criteria.

In the institutional framework of a tuition‐free system in higher education and collective bargaining in the labour market, performance indicators such as employability can provide relevant information regarding student choice and a proxy measure for the quality of higher education in each participating university. In addition, this provides a rare insight into the employability of graduates from Bologna‐harmonised programmes, as well as for a post‐transition country such as Slovenia.

By covering entire populations of full‐time graduates in 2007, 2008 and 2009 who entered the labour market for the first time after graduation, the authors calculate the probability of employment within the first three and nine months of graduation. This allows the authors to infer about the effect of the new Bologna‐harmonised programmes as well as the impact of the recent financial crisis. The paper offers rare evidence of the school‐to‐work transition in a post‐transition and tuition‐free country.

Pay varies across individuals. Some variation is endemic to a country's institutions including a country's level of development and its technological infrastructure. Some variation is based on differences in individual attributes, particularly an individual's ability to acquire human capital. Finally, some variation is based on incentives instigated by the government, by one's employer, or by one's family. These incentives often operate indirectly by influencing educational choices, labor force participation, and even cohabitation and marital arrangements. This volume contains eight articles on aspects of the distribution of income. One deals with technology change and the distribution of earnings, two deal with internal labor markets, four deal with incentives that motivate work related behavior, and finally one deals with immigrant labor market success.