IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/indrel/qt23s9n3s2.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of Youth Employment: Evidence from New York City Summer Youth Employment Program Lotteries

Author

Listed:
  • Gelber, Alexander
  • Isen, Adam
  • Kessler, Judd B.

Abstract

Programs to encourage labor market activity among youth, including public employment programs and wage subsidies like the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, can be supported by three broad rationales. They may: (1) provide contemporaneous income support to participants; (2) encourage work experience that improves future employment and/ or educational outcomes of participants; and/or (3) keep participants “out of trouble.” We study randomized lotteries for access to New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), the largest summer youth employment program in the U.S., by merging SYEP administrative data on 294,580 lottery participants to IRS data on the universe of U.S. tax records. In assessing the three rationales, we find that: (1) SYEP participation causes average earnings and the probability of employment to increase in the year of program participation, with modest crowd out of other earnings and employment ; (2) SYEP participation causes a moderate decrease in average earnings for three years following the program and has no impact on college enrollment; and (3) SYEP participation decreases the probability of incarceration and decreases the probability of mortality , which has important and potentially pivotal implications for analyzing the net benefits of the program.

Suggested Citation

  • Gelber, Alexander & Isen, Adam & Kessler, Judd B., 2015. "The Effects of Youth Employment: Evidence from New York City Summer Youth Employment Program Lotteries," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt23s9n3s2, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt23s9n3s2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/23s9n3s2.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruno Crépon & Esther Duflo & Marc Gurgand & Roland Rathelot & Philippe Zamora, 2013. "Do Labor Market Policies have Displacement Effects? Evidence from a Clustered Randomized Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 531-580.
    2. David Card & Jochen Kluve & Andrea Weber, 2010. "Active Labour Market Policy Evaluations: A Meta-Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(548), pages 452-477, November.
    3. repec:mpr:mprres:7746 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. David H. Autor & Susan N. Houseman, 2010. "Do Temporary-Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes for Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence from "Work First"," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 96-128, July.
    5. Viscusi, W Kip & Aldy, Joseph E, 2003. "The Value of a Statistical Life: A Critical Review of Market Estimates throughout the World," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 5-76, August.
    6. Robert J. LaLonde, 2003. "Employment and Training Programs," NBER Chapters, in: Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, pages 517-586, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Stephen H. Bell & Larry L. Orr, 1994. "Is Subsidized Employment Cost Effective for Welfare Recipients? Experimental Evidence from Seven State Demonstrations," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(1), pages 42-61.
    8. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Nathaniel Hilger & Emmanuel Saez & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach & Danny Yagan, 2011. "How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence from Project Star," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 1593-1660.
    9. Stephanie Riegg Cellini & Fernando Ferreira & Jesse Rothstein, 2010. "The Value of School Facility Investments: Evidence from a Dynamic Regression Discontinuity Design," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 215-261.
    10. David Card & Dean R. Hyslop, 2005. "Estimating the Effects of a Time-Limited Earnings Subsidy for Welfare-Leavers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(6), pages 1723-1770, November.
    11. Howard S. Bloom & Larry L. Orr & Stephen H. Bell & George Cave & Fred Doolittle & Winston Lin & Johannes M. Bos, 1997. "The Benefits and Costs of JTPA Title II-A Programs: Key Findings from the National Job Training Partnership Act Study," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(3), pages 549-576.
    12. Couch, Kenneth A, 1992. "New Evidence on the Long-Term Effects of Employment Training Programs," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(4), pages 380-388, October.
    13. repec:reg:rpubli:282 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Jeanne Bellotti & Linda Rosenberg & Samina Sattar & Andrea Mraz Esposito & Jessica Ziegler, "undated". "Reinvesting in America's Youth: Lessons from the 2009 Recovery Act Summer Youth Employment Initiative," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 650fe7340244438ab3c5bda6a, Mathematica Policy Research.
    15. Hamersma, Sarah, 2003. "The Work Opportunity and Welfare–to–Work Tax Credits: Participation Rates Among Eligible Workers," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(4), pages 725-738, December.
    16. Peter Z. Schochet & John Burghardt & Sheena McConnell, 2008. "Does Job Corps Work? Impact Findings from the National Job Corps Study," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1864-1886, December.
    17. repec:mpr:mprres:6097 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Patrick Kline & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Where is the land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1553-1623.
    19. Peter Z. Schochet & John Burghardt & Sheena McConnell, "undated". "Does Job Corps Work? Impact Findings from the National Job Corps Study," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 5067e4907eba4a4881f510080, Mathematica Policy Research.
    20. David S. Lee, 2009. "Training, Wages, and Sample Selection: Estimating Sharp Bounds on Treatment Effects," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(3), pages 1071-1102.
    21. repec:mpr:mprres:6536 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Amanda Pallais, 2014. "Inefficient Hiring in Entry-Level Labor Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(11), pages 3565-3599, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amy Ellen Schwartz & Jacob Leos‐Urbel & Joel McMurry & Matthew Wiswall, 2021. "Making summer matter: The impact of youth employment on academic performance," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(2), pages 477-504, May.
    2. Santosh Anagol & Vimal Balasubramaniam & Tarun Ramadorai, 2018. "Endowment Effects in the Field: Evidence from India’s IPO Lotteries," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 85(4), pages 1971-2004.
    3. repec:hal:journl:hal-03393230 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Roberto Galbiati & Aurélie Ouss & Arnaud Philippe, 2021. "Jobs, News and Reoffending after Incarceration [Examining the generality of the unemployment–crime association]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(633), pages 247-270.
    5. Modestino, Alicia Sasser & Paulsen, Richard J., 2019. "Reducing inequality summer by summer: Lessons from an evaluation of the Boston Summer Youth Employment Program," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 40-53.
    6. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6lb0bbni2p86t8ib82gjce1ok1 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Eren, Ozkan & Depew, Briggs & Barnes, Stephen, 2017. "Test-based promotion policies, dropping out, and juvenile crime," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 9-31.
    8. Surajeet Chakravarty & Todd R. Kaplan & Luke Lindsay, 2020. "Increasing Employment Through the Partial Release of Information," Discussion Papers 2001, University of Exeter, Department of Economics, revised 2023.
    9. Roberto Galbiati & Aurélie Ouss & Arnaud Philippe, 2015. "Jobs, News and Re-offending after Incarceration," Sciences Po publications 41, Sciences Po.
    10. Laura Jaitman, 2019. "Frontiers in the economics of crime: lessons for Latin America and the Caribbean," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-36, December.
    11. Atwell, Meghan Salas & Jeon, Jeesoo & Cho, Youngmin & Coulton, Claudia & Lewis, Eric & Sorensen, Alena, 2023. "Using integrated data to examine the effects of summer youth employment program completion on educational and criminal justice system outcomes: Evidence from Cuyahoga County, Ohio," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. María laura Alzúa & Guillermo Cruces & Carolina Lopez, 2016. "Long-Run Effects Of Youth Training Programs: Experimental Evidence From Argentina," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(4), pages 1839-1859, October.
    2. Jonathan M.V. Davis & Sara B. Heller, 2017. "Rethinking the Benefits of Youth Employment Programs: The Heterogeneous Effects of Summer Jobs," NBER Working Papers 23443, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Kluve, Jochen & Ripani, Laura & Rosas-Shady, David, 2015. "Experimental Evidence on the Long Term Impacts of a Youth Training Program," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7367, Inter-American Development Bank.
    4. Bruno Crépon & Gerard J. van den Berg, 2016. "Active Labor Market Policies," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 521-546, October.
    5. Agata Maida & Daniela Sonedda, 2019. "Getting out of the starting gate on the right foot: employment effects of investment in human capital," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 164, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    6. Arif Mamun & Evan Borkum & Kristen Velyvis & Luke Heinkel & John Middleton, "undated". "The Millennium Challenge Corporation's Vocational Training Activity in Namibia: Evaluation Design Report," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 80d2989ca5c64313afe4bc4fd, Mathematica Policy Research.
    7. World Bank Group, 2015. "Toward Solutions for Youth Employment," World Bank Publications - Reports 23261, The World Bank Group.
    8. Rothstein, Jesse & Von Wachter, Till, 2016. "Social Experiments in the Labor Market," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt7957p9g6, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    9. David Card & Jochen Kluve & Andrea Weber, 2018. "What Works? A Meta Analysis of Recent Active Labor Market Program Evaluations," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 894-931.
    10. Andrea Albanese & Bart Cockx & Muriel Dejemeppe, 2022. "Long-Term Effects of Hiring Subsidies for Unemployed Youths - Beware of Spillovers," LISER Working Paper Series 2022-09, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    11. Maximilian Kasy & Lukas Lehner, 2023. "Employing the Unemployed of Marienthal: Evaluation of a Guaranteed Job Program," CESifo Working Paper Series 10394, CESifo.
    12. Albanese, Andrea & Cockx, B. & Dejemeppe, Muriel, 2023. "Long-term effects of hiring subsidies for low-educated unemployed youths," ROA Research Memorandum 002, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    13. Marios Michaelides & Peter R. Mueser & Jeffrey A. Smith, 2021. "Do Reemployment Programs For The Unemployed Work For Youth? Evidence From The Great Recession In The United States," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(1), pages 162-185, January.
    14. Paloma Acevedo & Guillermo Cruces & Paul Gertler & Sebastian Martinez, 2017. "Living Up to Expectations: How Job Training Made Women Better Off and Men Worse Off," NBER Working Papers 23264, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Jochen Kluve, 2014. "Youth labor market interventions," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 106-106, December.
    16. Lalive, Rafael & Cottier, Lionel & Flueckiger, Yves & Kempeneers, Pierre, 2018. "Does Job Search Assistance Really Raise Employment?," CEPR Discussion Papers 13133, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Bampasidou, Maria & Flores, Carlos A. & Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso, 2011. "Unbundling the Degree Effect in a Job Training Program for Disadvantaged Youth," 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 103619, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Dalla-Zuanna, Antonio & Liu, Kai, 2019. "Understanding Program Complementarities: Estimating the Dynamic Effects of a Training Program with Multiple Alternatives," IZA Discussion Papers 12839, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Evan Borkum & Arif Mamun & Linus Marco & Malik Khan Mubeen, "undated". "Evaluation of the Vocational Training Grant Fund in Namibia: Baseline Report," Mathematica Policy Research Reports e62360de0bf845e3b67ee22ff, Mathematica Policy Research.
    20. Kluve, Jochen., 2016. "A review of the effectiveness of active labour market programmes with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean," ILO Working Papers 994901193402676, International Labour Organization.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social and Behavioral Sciences;

    JEL classification:

    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt23s9n3s2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/irucbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.