Firms are often reluctant to provide “general training” because, once trained, the worker might get poached by a competing firm that effectively “free rides” on the initial firm’s training investment....

Firms are often reluctant to provide “general training” because, once trained, the worker might get poached by a competing firm that effectively “free rides” on the initial firm’s training investment. Why would Google spend millions of dollars knowing that, in many cases, it will ultimately end up training another firm’s workers for free?