What Works for Active Labor Market Policies?

Eduardo Levy Yeyati

No 142, Growth Lab Working Papers from Harvard's Growth Lab

Abstract: The past 5 years have witnessed a flurry of RCT evaluations that shed new light on the impact and cost effectiveness of Active Labor Market Policies (ALMPs) aiming to improve workers´ access to new jobs and better wages. We report the first systematic review of 102 RCT interventions comprising a total of 652 estimated impacts. We find that (i) a third of these estimates are positive and statistically significant (PPS) at conventional levels; (ii) programs are more likely to yield positive results when GDP growth is higher and unemployment lower; (iii) programs aimed at building human capital, such as vocational training, independent worker assistance and wage subsidies, show significant positive impact, and (iv) program length, monetary incentives, individualized follow up and activity targeting are all key features in determining the effectiveness of the interventions.

Keywords: vocational training; labor policies; wage subsidies; randomized controlled trials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J21 J48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-07
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Related works:
Working Paper: What works for active labor market policies? (2021)
Working Paper: What Works for Active Labor Market Policies? (2019)
Working Paper: What works for Active Labor Market Policies? (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:glh:wpfacu:142

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