This chapter summarizes the main empirical findings of the analysis, both the cross-national and the longitudinal dimensions, and relates these findings to several major theoretical debates in the literature. The analysis of cross-national differences in the institutions governing in-plant training and the over-time analysis tracking the evolution of the German system over a longer period speak to debates in the political–economic literature on “varieties of capitalism” concerning institutional origins and institutional complementarities. Moreover, the analysis here provides insights into a broader literature in political science concerning issues of institutional reproduction, institutional change, and path dependence in politics.

Cross-National Comparisons: The Origins of Divergent Skill Regimes

The single variable that mattered most crucially to the divergent trajectories of skill formation documented here was the behavior and strategies of leading firms in skill-intensive industries, particularly the machine and metalworking industries. Around the turn of the century, large machine and metalworking firms across all four countries shared similar interests and were pursuing roughly similar strategies with respect to skill formation. Circa 1895 firms like M.A.N., Mather and Platt, Yokosuka, and General Electric were all engaged in efforts to develop their own in-plant capacities for skill formation and combining these with various policies designed to co-opt workers and exclude unions. From then on, however, trajectories diverged as these firms adapted their strategies to the particular constellation of incentives and constraints they faced in their separate countries.