Demand-Driven Youth Training Programs: Experimental Evidence from Mongolia

María Laura Alzúa, Soyolmaa Batbekh, Altantsetseg Batchuluun, Bayarmaa Dalkhjav and Jose Galdo

Working Papers PIERI from PEP-PIERI

Abstract: Because of its high incidence and potential threat to social cohesion, youth unemployment is a global concern. This study uses a randomized controlled trial to analyze the effectiveness of a demand-driven vocational training program for disadvantaged youth in Mongolia. Mongolia, a transitional country whose economic structure shifted from a communist, centrally planned economy to a free-market economy over a relatively short period, offers a new setting in which to test the effectiveness of standard active labor market policies. This study reports positive and statistically significant short-term effects of vocational training on monthly earnings, skills matching, and self-employment. Substantial heterogeneity emerges as relatively older, richer, and better-educated individuals drive these positive effects. A second intervention that randomly assigns participants to receive repetitive weekly newsletters with information on market returns to vocational training shows positive impacts on the length of exposure to and successful completion of the program. These positive effects, however, are only observed at the intensive margin and do not lead to higher employment or earnings outcomes.

Keywords: vocational training programs; labor market; randomized controlled trial; employment; earnings; job quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J08 J18 J24 J38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-lma and nep-tra
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Related works:
Journal Article: Demand-Driven Youth Training Programs: Experimental Evidence from Mongolia (2021)
Working Paper: Demand-Driven Youth Training Programs: Experimental Evidence from Mongolia (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lvl:piercr:2019-11

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