New Estimates of Public Employment and Training Program Net Impacts: A Nonexperimental Evaluation of the Workforce Investment Act Program

Peter Mueser, Carolyn Heinrich, Kenneth Troske, Kyung-Seong Jeon and Daver Kahvecioglu
Additional contact information
Kyung-Seong Jeon: Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia, https://economics.missouri.edu

No 1003, Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Missouri

Abstract: This paper presents nonexperimental net impact estimates for the Adult and Dislocated Worker programs under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the primary federal job training program in the U.S, based on administrative data from 12 states, covering approximately 160,000 WIA participants and nearly 3 million comparison group members. The key measure of interest is the increment in average quarterly earnings or employment attributable to WIA program participation for those who participate, estimated for up to four years following entry into the program using propensity score matching methods. The results for participants in the WIA Adult program show that participating is associated with a several-hundred-dollar increase in average quarterly earnings. Adult program participants who obtain training have lower earnings in the months during training and the year after exit than those who don’t receive training, but they catch up within 10 quarters, ultimately registering large gains. The marginal benefits of training exceed, on average, $400 in earnings each quarter three years after program entry. Participants in the Dislocated Worker program experience several quarters for which earnings are depressed relative to comparison group workers after entering WIA, and, although their earnings ultimately match or overtake the comparison group, the benefits they obtain are smaller than for those in the Adult program.

Keywords: Job Training; Program Evaluation; Workforce Investment Act; Matching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 J08 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 61 pages
Date: 2010-03-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
Note: Update of WP0901
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published in the IZA Journal of Labor Economics as "Do Public Employment and Training Programs Work?"

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Working Paper: New Estimates of Public Employment and Training Program Net Impacts: A Nonexperimental Evaluation of the Workforce Investment Act Program (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:umc:wpaper:1003

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