Impact Evaluation of the Special Program for Employment of Students
Channel: PIDS
Date: 2021-09-07

Impact Evaluation of the Special Program for Employment of Students: Challenges, Findings, and Lessons Learned



Innovations for Poverty Action, in partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment, conducted a large-scale randomized field experiment to measure the impact of DOLE’s Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES), a program that links “poor, but deserving” youth to formal work opportunities during their school breaks by offering employers a 40% wage subsidy.

Dr. Emily Beam, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Vermont, USA and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor, will present the results of the study. It will focus on the results of the SPES on student education and employment outcomes in the medium-run alongside implementation challenges encountered in the conduct of the impact evaluation, including lessons learned, and suggestions for future research.