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Youth employment, academic performance and labour market outcomes: Production functions and policy effects

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  • Holford, Angus

Abstract

We use instrumental variables for teenage employment opportunities to identify the causal effects of part-time work during compulsory education in England on educational performance at age 16 and labour market outcomes to age 25. We identify the total ‘policy effect’, partly driven by resulting changes in other inputs, and the direct effect or ‘production function parameter’, which holds these constant. The total effects of an additional hour of part-time work per week at age 15 include reducing educational performance in school-leaving qualifications by males by 2.5% and females by 6.7% of a standard deviation, and increasing duration of unemployment experience before age 25 by two months. Direct effects on long-run outcomes are generally beneficial for women and less so for men. What human capital or signalling benefits there are to teenage part-time work are substantially offset by the effects of reduced educational investments.

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  • Holford, Angus, 2020. "Youth employment, academic performance and labour market outcomes: Production functions and policy effects," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:63:y:2020:i:c:s0927537120300129
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2020.101806
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    Cited by:

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    2. Lesner, Rune Vammen & Damm, Anna Piil & Bertelsen, Preben & Pedersen, Mads Uffe, 2022. "The Effect of School-Year Employment on Cognitive Skills, Risky Behavior, and Educational Achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Dávila, Dayana & Alvarado, Rafael, 2022. "Análisis del impacto de la Ley Orgánica para la Promoción del Trabajo Juvenil, Regulación Excepcional de la Jornada de Trabajo, Cesantía y Seguro de Desempleo, sobre el desempleo juvenil en Ecuador," MPRA Paper 113709, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Zhanat Abzhan & Toty Bekzhanova & Anar Nukesheva & Mirzatilla Abdurakhmanov & Lyazzat Aitkhozhina & Zhanna Bulkhairova, 2020. "Peculiarities of youth unemployment: a case study," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 7(4), pages 3438-3454, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour supply; Human capital; Education production function; Time allocation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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