Publication: Integrated Youth Employment Programs: A Stocktake of Evidence on What Works in Youth Employment Programs
Date
2018
ISSN
Published
2018
Author(s)
Datta, Namita
Assy, Angela Elzir
Buba, Johanne
Johansson De Silva, Sara
Watson, Samantha
Abstract
This Note is a stocktake summarizing
evidence on “what works” in youth employment programs on
both the supply and demand side. Employment outcomes refer
both to direct and indirect job creation, including through
firm start-up, as well as improvements in the quality of
jobs as manifested in higher earnings as self-employment or
increases in household income. This paper is based on an
extensive desk literature review and analyzes the major
meta-analysis and literature reviews on both the labor
demand side and labor supply side.The supply side has a
large body of evidence and evaluations of the whole Active
Labor Market Policies (ALMPs) package as a whole. Kluve et
al. (2016) and McKenzie, D. (2017) have a rigorous
methodology and provide wide analysis and recommendations of
the major studies on the supply side and provide the basis
for that section. We supplement this information with key
studies which had Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) or
rigorous evaluations.In some sense the supply side stocktake
is an analysis of a few existing meta analyses complemented
by key studies not included in the meta-analysis. On the
demand side the evidence base on what works for jobs
outcomes is weak – so we used an extensive desk literature
review. We include meta analysis where they exist for
sections of the demand package (for example micro-credit).
For both the supply and demand side, the team worked with
experts across thematic areas (Agriculture, Social
Protection, Entrepreneurship, Social Development and Urban
Development) to ensure we had a mix of literature from the
diverse thematic bodies included. The note does not look at
evidence on policy reforms that address systemic problems.
We recognize that rural and urban investment climates,
regulatory frameworks, the overall macro-economic framework,
human capital (education and training policy, basic health),
are prerequisites for many interventions on the demand side
of the labor market to be successful. In what follows, these
fundamentals are taken as given and the note focuses
primarily on interventions with specific identifiable
enterprise, firm or farm beneficiaries, rather than broad
investment climate reforms.
Citation
“Datta, Namita; Assy, Angela Elzir; Buba, Johanne; Johansson De Silva, Sara; Watson, Samantha. 2018. Integrated Youth Employment Programs: A Stocktake of Evidence on What Works in Youth Employment Programs. Jobs Working Paper;No. 24. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31424 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”