Priority to Unemployed Immigrants? A Causal Machine Learning Evaluation of Training in Belgium

Bart Cockx, Michael Lechner and Joost Bollens ()
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Joost Bollens: VDAB, Belgium

No 12875, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate heterogenous employment effects of Flemish training programmes. Based on administrative individual data, we analyse programme effects at various aggregation levels using Modified Causal Forests (MCF), a causal machine learning estimator for multiple programmes. While all programmes have positive effects after the lock-in period, we find substantial heterogeneity across programmes and types of unemployed. Simulations show that assigning unemployed to programmes that maximise individual gains as identified in our estimation can considerably improve effectiveness. Simplified rules, such as one giving priority to unemployed with low employability, mostly recent migrants, lead to about half of the gains obtained by more sophisticated rules.

Keywords: conditional average treatment effects; policy evaluation; active labour market policy; modified causal forest; causal machine learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 71 pages
Date: 2019-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-cmp, nep-eur and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - published in: Labour Economics , 2023, 80, 102306

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https://docs.iza.org/dp12875.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Priority to unemployed immigrants? A causal machine learning evaluation of training in Belgium (2023)
Working Paper: Priority to unemployed immigrants? A causal machine learning evaluation of training in Belgium (2022)
Working Paper: Priority of Unemployed Immigrants? A Causal Machine Learning Evaluation of Training in Belgium (2020)
Working Paper: Priority to unemployed immigrants? A causal machine learning evaluation of training in Belgium (2020)
Working Paper: Priority to unemployed immigrants? A causal machine learning evaluation of training in Belgium (2020)
Working Paper: Priority to unemployed immigrants? A causal machine learning evaluation of training in Belgium (2020)
Working Paper: Priority to unemployed immigrants? A causal machine learning evaluation of training in Belgium (2020)
Working Paper: Priority to unemployed immigrants? A causal machine learning evaluation of training in Belgium (2020)
Working Paper: Priority to unemployed immigrants? A causal machine learning evaluation of training in Belgium (2020)
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