The Effect of Work First Job Placements on the Distribution of Earnings: An Instrumental Variable Quantile Regression Approach

David Autor, Susan N. Houseman and Sari Pekkala Kerr

Journal of Labor Economics, 2017, vol. 35, issue 1, 149 - 190

Abstract: Government employment programs for low-skilled workers typically emphasize rapid placement of participants into jobs, of which many are temporary-help jobs. Using data from Detroit’s welfare-to-work program and the Chernozhukov-Hansen instrumental variables quantile regression method, we find that neither direct-hire nor temporary-help job placements significantly affect the lower tail of the earnings distribution. In the upper tail, direct-hire placements yield sizable earnings increases for over half of participants, while temporary-help placements yield significant earnings losses at higher quantiles. Our results cast doubt on the efficacy of employment programs’ exclusive focus on rapid job placement and their widespread reliance on temporary-help placements.

Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/687522 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/687522 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Effect of Work First Job Placements on the Distribution of Earnings: An Instrumental Variable Quantile Regression Approach (2012)
Working Paper: The Effect of Work First Job Placements on the Distribution of Earnings: An Instrumental Variable Quantile Regression Approach
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/687522

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Labor Economics from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().