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This paper presents an impact evaluation of a revamped version of the Dominican Republic's youth training program Juventud y Empleo. The paper analyzes the impact of the program on traditional labor market outcomes and on outcomes related to youth behavior and life style, expectations about the future and socio-emotional skills. In terms of labor market outcomes, the program has a positive impact on job formality for men of about 17 percent and there is also a seven percent increase in monthly earnings among those employed. However, there are no overall impacts on employment rates. Regarding non-labor market outcomes, the program reduces teenage pregnancy by five percentage points in the treatment group (about 45 percent), which is consistent with an overall increase in youth expectations about the future. The program also has a positive impact on non-cognitive skills as measured by three different scales. Scores improve between 0.08 and 0.16 standard deviations with the program. Although recent progress noted in the literature suggests that socio-emotional skills increase employability and quality of employment, the practical significance of the impacts is unclear, as there is only weak evidence that the life skills measures used are associated to better labor market performance. This is an area of growing interest and relevance that requires further research. JEL codes: J24, J64, O15, O17.

The transformation of the Latin American family has attracted increasing attention in sociodemographic studies, particularly those oriented from a gender perspective. This article reviews progress in the field and evaluates the links between families and public policies. It begins by focusing on the nature and meaning of modifications in family structure and dynamics (size, composition, headship, type and stability of unions, division of labor, and ways of living together). It then evaluates the extent to which there is agreement or disagreement between family changes and government initiatives. It focuses on programs oriented toward reconciling work and family and actions designed to highlight and sanction domestic violence. It concludes that, despite much that has been achieved, the actions taken so far are insufficient. It is essential to develop more complex analyses and explanations and to design reliable indicators that make it possible to monitor progress and omissions and gauge the scope of what remains to be done.

El objetivo de este artículo es profundizar en el estudio de la participación económica de las esposas, hijos e hijas en los hogares con jefes hombres de la Ciudad de México en el año de 1995. Mediante el uso de regresiones logísticas, las autoras buscan, por un lado, señalar el peso que pueden tener en nuestra situación actual variables tradicionalmente tomadas en cuenta para explicar la actividad laboral de los diferentes miembros de los hogares, tales como la edad, la escolaridad y el estado civil. Por otro lado, buscan demostrar la pertinencia de considerar las variables del contexto demográfico y socioeconómico familiar en todos los sectores sociales. En particular, la influencia de las variables socioeconómicas familiares (como son el nivel de ingreso y la inserción laboral del jefe del hogar) es mejor conocida en el caso de los sectores de escasos recursos, y su trabajo pretende ampliar el conocimiento existente en este campo también en lo que respecta a los grupos relativamente más favorecidos. Al respecto, uno de los resultados más interesantes lo obtuvieron al considerar la ocupación no manual independiente del jefe del hogar –profesionistas, técnicos y comerciantes establecidos– ya  que en este contexto familiar se observó una participación económica significativa de las esposas e hijos varones, aun controlando tanto los factores individuales como el ingreso de los jefes.

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