世界银行-欧盟27国受过教育的工人和管理人员（英）

Possible causes of an inadequately educated workforce at the region level and firm level More than any other constraint, frms in the EU-27 countries1 rank inadequately educated workers as their top obstacle (see the frst Brief in this series). For a typical area in the European Union with between about 800,000 and 3 million inhabitants (NUTS2 regions),2 27 percent of frms report “an inadequately educated workforce” as the top obstacle to their operations. In more than half of the 186 NUTS2 groupings analyzed in the series, this obstacle is the most frequently cited. Such frms abound among frms of diferent sizes, sectors, income groups, and ages (fgure 1). However, their proportion is signifcantly higher among medium and large frms compared to small frms; manufacturing frms compared to services sector frms; most developed NUTS2 regions followed by transition regions and then the least developed regions; and older frms (more than 10 years) compared to younger frms. Tus, these groups of frms may be targeted by policy makers on a priority basis. Tere are sharp diferences between NUTS2 regions within a country in the incidence of frms citing inadequately educated workforce as the top obstacle (fgure 2). Tus, it is important to also consider regional or NUTS2-level factors to understand the problem of inadequately educated workers faced by frms. Figure 2. Te share of frms that report inadequately educated workforce as the top obstacle varies substantially between NUTS2 regions Understanding regional characteristics that are correlated with the likelihood of frms reporting inadequately educated workforce as the top obstacle is a good starting point for identifying possible causes of an inadequately educated workforce and its likely efects, the type of policies required to address the problem, and which types of policies should be targeted. Economic development. Te most natural determinant of the availability of adequately educated workers is the level of economic development (see Lange et al. 2018). Macro-level studies have shown that richer countries have a much higher *Afliations: World Bank, Development Economics, Enterprise Analysis. For correspondence: mamin@worldbank.org.Acknowledgments: Tis Brief is a part of a series focusing on issues of regional disparities and growth opportunities in the EU-27 area. Te series is a product of the World Bank’s Enterprise Analysis team (DECEA) and has beneftted from generous support from the EU DG REGIO directorate. Te team would also like to thank Norman V. Loayza and Jorge Rodriguez Meza for comments and guiding the publication process. Nancy Morrison provided excellent editorial assistance.Objective and disclaimer: Te fndings in this series of Briefs do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank Group, its Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. All Briefs in the series can be accessed via: https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/brief/global-indicators-briefs-series. Educated Wo