IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/idb/wpaper/3224.html

Revisiting the Employability Effects of Training Programs for the Unemployed in Developing Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Angel Calderon Madrid

Abstract

Data sets used for evaluations in developing countries do not lend themselves to measuring the impact of training programs on the re-employment dynamics of trainees. An exception is a data set collected for an evaluation conducted in 1994 on participants in a training program targeting the unemployed in Mexico. In addition to having a control group of eligible individuals who did not participate in the program, this data set is the only one with longitudinal data covering not only the length of unemployment episodes after the training of the respondent, but also the duration of his/her employment spells. We use this data and estimate the additional weeks individuals work as the result of training, relative to what would be the case without it. Based on hazard functions, we calculate a program`s impact on both the time spent searching for a job and the time spent in that job. We show that a failure to distinguish between finding a "sustained" job versus finding "a job" can lead to misleading conclusions about a program`s effectiveness. We also illustrate the need to correct for unobserved heterogeneity across individuals in hazard functions to avoid misleading implications in an evaluation.

Suggested Citation

  • Angel Calderon Madrid, 2006. "Revisiting the Employability Effects of Training Programs for the Unemployed in Developing Countries," Research Department Publications 3224, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:idb:wpaper:3224
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.iadb.org/research/pub_hits.cfm?pub_id=R-522&pub_file_name=pubR-522.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heckman, James & Singer, Burton, 1984. "A Method for Minimizing the Impact of Distributional Assumptions in Econometric Models for Duration Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(2), pages 271-320, March.
    2. Meyer, Bruce D, 1990. "Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Spells," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(4), pages 757-782, July.
    3. Van den Berg, Gerard J., 2001. "Duration models: specification, identification and multiple durations," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 55, pages 3381-3460, Elsevier.
    4. Revenga, Ana & Riboud, Michelle & Tan, Hong, 1994. "The Impact of Mexico's Retraining Program on Employment and Wages," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 8(2), pages 247-277, May.
    5. Kiefer, Nicholas M, 1988. "Economic Duration Data and Hazard Functions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 646-679, June.
    6. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1979. "Job Matching and the Theory of Turnover," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 972-990, October.
    7. Liliane Bonnal & Denis Fougère & Anne Sérandon, 1997. "Evaluating the Impact of French Employment Policies on Individual Labour Market Histories," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 683-713.
    8. Jaap H. Abbring & Gerard J. van den Berg, 2003. "The Nonparametric Identification of Treatment Effects in Duration Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1491-1517, September.
    9. Ham, John C & LaLonde, Robert J, 1996. "The Effect of Sample Selection and Initial Conditions in Duration Models: Evidence from Experimental Data on Training," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(1), pages 175-205, January.
    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. Attanasio, Orazio & Kugler, Adriana & Meghir, Costas, 2009. "Subsidizing Vocational Training for Disadvantaged Youth in Developing Countries: Evidence from a Randomized Trial," IZA Discussion Papers 4251, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Orazio Attanasio & Adriana Kugler & Costas Meghir, 2008. "Training Disadvantaged Youth in Latin America: Evidence from a Randomized Trial," NBER Working Papers 13931, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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. Angel Calderon Madrid, 2006. "Un nuevo vistazo a los efectos en la capacidad de empleo de los programas de capacitación para desempleados en países en desarrollo," Research Department Publications 3225, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    2. Calderón Madrid, Angel, 2006. "Revisiting the Employability Effects of Training Programs for the Unemployed in Developing Countries," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 3254, Inter-American Development Bank.
    3. Jaap Abbring & James Heckman, 2008. "Dynamic policy analysis," CeMMAP working papers CWP05/08, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Tatsiramos, Konstantinos, 2010. "Job displacement and the transitions to re-employment and early retirement for non-employed older workers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 517-535, May.
    5. Konstantinos Tatsiramos, 2009. "Unemployment Insurance in Europe: Unemployment Duration and Subsequent Employment Stability," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(6), pages 1225-1260, December.
    6. Van den Berg, Gerard J., 2001. "Duration models: specification, identification and multiple durations," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 55, pages 3381-3460, Elsevier.
    7. Cockx, Bart & Robin, Stéphane R. & Goebel, Christian, 2006. "Income Support Policies for Part-Time Workers: A Stepping-Stone to Regular Jobs? An Application to Young Long-Term Unemployed Women in Belgium," IZA Discussion Papers 2432, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Jaap H. Abbring, 0000. "Mixed Hitting-Time Models," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 07-057/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 11 Aug 2009.
    9. García-Pérez, J. Ignacio & Jiménez-Martín, Sergi & Sánchez-Martín, Alfonso R., 2013. "Retirement incentives, individual heterogeneity and labor transitions of employed and unemployed workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 106-120.
    10. Hausman, Jerry A. & Woutersen, Tiemen, 2014. "Estimating a semi-parametric duration model without specifying heterogeneity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 178(P1), pages 114-131.
    11. Glaser, Darrell & Rahman, Ahmed, 2015. "Human Capital on the High Seas - Job Mobility and Returns to Technical Skill During Industrialization," MPRA Paper 68351, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Jaap H. Abbring, 2012. "Mixed Hitting‐Time Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(2), pages 783-819, March.
    13. van Ours, Jan C. & Lalive, Rafael & Arni, Patrick, 2009. "How Effective Are Unemployment Benefit Sanctions?," CEPR Discussion Papers 7541, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Maria Elena Bontempi & Luca Lambertini & Giuseppe Parigi, 2024. "Exploring the innovative effort: duration models and heterogeneity," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 14(3), pages 587-656, September.
    15. Calderón-Madrid, Angel & Trejo, Belem, 2002. "The Impact of the Mexican Training Program for Unemployed Workers on Re-employment Dynamics and on Earnings," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 A2-1, International Conferences on Panel Data.
    16. Mingliang Li, 2006. "High school completion and future youth unemployment: new evidence from High School and Beyond," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(1), pages 23-53, January.
    17. Holm, Anders, 2002. "The effect of training on search durations: a random effects approach," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 433-450, July.
    18. Catalina Jordi & Miguel Manjón, 2014. "The determinants of urban (un)employment duration: evidence from Barcelona," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 53(2), pages 515-556, September.
    19. Daouli, Joan & Davillas, Apostolos & Demoussis, Michael & Giannakopoulos, Nicholas, 2014. "Obesity persistence and duration dependence: Evidence from a cohort of US adults (1985–2010)," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 30-44.
    20. Gaure, Simen & Røed, Knut & Westlie, Lars, 2012. "Job search incentives and job match quality," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 438-450.

    More about this item

    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:idb:wpaper:3224. 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: Felipe Herrera Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iadbbus.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.