Training disadvantaged youth in Latin America
Subtitle: evidence from a randomized trial
By: Orazio Attanasio, Adriana Kugler, Costas Meghir.
Contributors: Kugler, Adriana D.; Meghir, Costas.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 13931; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 13931.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "Youth unemployment in Latin America is exceptionally high, as much as 50% among the poor.  Vocational training may be the best chance to help unemployed young people at the bottom of the income distribution.  This paper evaluates the impact of a randomized training program for disadvantaged youth introduced in Colombia in 2005 on the employment and earnings of trainees.  This is one of a couple of randomized training trials conducted in developing countries and, thus, offers a unique opportunity to examine the causal impact of training in a developing country context.  We use originally collected data on individuals randomly offered and not offered training.  We find that the program raises earnings and employment for both men and women, with larger effects on women.  Women offered training earn about 18% more than those not offered training, while men offered training earn about 8% more than men not offered training.  Much of the earnings increases for both men and women are related to increased employment in formal sector jobs following training.  The benefits of training are greater when individuals spend more time doing on-the-job training, while hours of training in the classroom have no impact on the returns to training.  Cost-benefit analysis of these results suggests that the program generates a large net gain, especially for women"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 7/1/2008.

Includes bibliographical references.

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