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.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract: This paper studies the effect of welfare programs on work incentives and the labor supply of adults in developing countries. The document builds on the experimental evaluations of three programs implemented in rural areas: Mexico's PROGRESA, Nicaragua's Red de Protección Social (RPS) and Honduras' Programa de Asignación Familiar (PRAF). The impact of welfare on labor supply has been widely studied in developed countries, where most recent initiatives attempt to mitigate negative effects on work incentives. The programs under study are conditional cash transfers (CCT), which combine monetary benefits with incentives for curbing child labor and fostering the accumulation of human capital. Unlike their counterparts in developed economies, however, they do not account for potential impacts on the labor supply of adults, and there is little systematic evidence on this aspect despite a wealth of empirical studies on their intended outcomes. Comparable results for the three countries indicate mostly negative but small and non-significant effects of the programs on the employment of adults, no reallocation of labor between agricultural and other sectors, and a reduction in hours worked by adults in eligible households in RPS. Moreover, PROGRESA had a positive effect on beneficiaries' wages. The programs did not imply major disincentives to work, despite substantial transfers, but they had some effects on local labor markets. This mechanism is related to recent findings on the indirect impact of CCTs on ineligible households, and implies that future evaluation studies and designs should account for the equilibrium effects of the interventions. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor mayKeywords: welfare programs, income support, labor supply, adult work incentives, conditional cash transfers, randomized control trials, developing countries. JEL Codes: J08 -J22 -I38 * Corresponding authors: malzua@cedlas.org, gcruces@cedlas.org and laurari@iadb.org. This paper originates in a section of the report "Labor supply responses to conditional cash transfer programs. Experimental and non-experimental evidence from Latin America". The full report was prepared for the IDB by a team directed by María Laura Alzúa, Guillermo Cruces, Leonardo Gasparini and Laura Ripani. The team members, Javier Alejo, Andrés Ham, Sergio Olivieri and Mariana Viollaz, from CEDLAS-UNLP, provided outstanding research assistance in different stages of the report. The authors wish to thank Santi...

This paper studies the effect of welfare programs on work incentives and the labor supply of adults in developing countries. The document builds on the experimental evaluations of three programs implemented in rural areas: Mexico's PROGRESA, Nicaragua's Red de Protección Social (RPS) and Honduras' Programa de Asignación Familiar (PRAF). The impact of welfare on labor supply has been widely studied in developed countries, where most recent initiatives attempt to mitigate negative effects on work incentives. The programs under study are conditional cash transfers (CCT), which combine monetary benefits with incentives for curbing child labor and fostering the accumulation of human capital. Unlike their counterparts in developed economies, however, they do not account for potential impacts on the labor supply of adults, and there is little systematic evidence on this aspect despite a wealth of empirical studies on their intended outcomes. Comparable results for the three countries indicate mostly negative but small and non-significant effects of the programs on the employment of adults, no reallocation of labor between agricultural and other sectors, and a reduction in hours worked by adults in eligible households in RPS. Moreover, PROGRESA had a positive effect on beneficiaries' wages. The programs did not imply major disincentives to work, despite substantial transfers, but they had some effects on local labor markets. This mechanism is related to recent findings on the indirect impact of CCTs on ineligible households, and implies that future evaluation studies and designs should account for the equilibrium effects of the interventions.

Identifying the right human capital investments for disadvantaged youths is a key policy concern worldwide, yet almost no rigorous evidence on the long-run effects of these investments exists outside the United States. The authors present a large-scale randomized controlled trial of a youth training program, estimating effects six years after random assignment from a representative sample of more than 3,200 youths. The intervention is prototypical of training programs worldwide and is implemented at scale in the Dominican Republic. Empirical findings indicate, on the one hand, significant effects on formal employment, particularly for men, and on earnings for both men and women in Santo Domingo. On the other hand, no significant effects on overall average employment are evident.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-IGO BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/legalcode) and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed.Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC-IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the licenseThe opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily refl ect the views of the Inter-American Development Bank, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent. SECOND EDITIONThis edition includes some changes from the formatting of the fi rst edition. Changes in the calculation of non-wage costs have also been introduced, affecting Figures 2.6-2.10, 4.5, and 5.7. These changes are due to several adjustments that can be summarized as follows: 1. the inclusion of contributions to training institutions in Nicaragua and Paraguay; 2. changes in taxable income for the calculation of premiums (gross income in some cases and income net of the additional year-end bonus in others); 3. adjustments in the upper and lower thresholds for determining taxable income, which affect the calculation of the total contribution rate (as established by law, largely dependent on the minimum wage).Furthermore, specifi c adjustments were made for some countries. In Nicaragua, the advance notice penalty was eliminated, as it is not provided for in labor law, and in Jamaica, an adjustment was made in the working population obtained from the Labour Force Survey (which was employed to calculate the 2012 GDP per worker).In Figure 5.2, the indicator labeled "other special costs in the event of collective dismissals" for Nicaragua (Item 21 in the calculation of the "protection against collective dismissals of regular workers" indicator) was adjusted from 0 to 0.5. Finally, small changes were made in Figure 2.17, as in some countries, the rate refl ected the percentage of employees who received job training out of the total population (15-64 years old) rather than out of employees of the same age group. Jamaica was excluded from this Figure, since the survey only contains data for the inactive population.The Spanish acronym for youths who are neither in education nor working is "NINIs"; the usual English acronym refers to youths "not in education, employment, or training" (or "NEETs"). However, translating NINIs as NEETs would not be accurate, as the household surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) do not capture whether people are enrolled in training institutions. Therefore, this book does not use the standard English acronym NEET. The same applies to youths who are "neith...