IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this paper

Money Matters: Evidence from a Large-Scale Randomized Field Experiment with Vouchers for Adult Training

Author Info

  • Messer, Dolores

    ()

    (University of Bern)

  • Wolter, Stefan C.

    ()

    (University of Bern)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a randomized experiment analyzing the use of vouchers for adult training. In 2006, 2,400 people were issued with a training voucher which they were entitled to use in payment for a training course of their choice. User behavior was compared with a control group of 14,000 people. People in the treatment and in the control group were not aware at any time that they were part of an experiment. The experiment shows that the voucher had a significant causal impact on participation in training modules. Nevertheless, the increase was partially offset by a deadweight loss in excess of fifty percent.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp4017.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 4017.

as
in new window

Length: 35 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4017
Contact details of provider: Postal:
IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Phone: +49 228 3894 223
Fax: +49 228 3894 180
Web page: http://www.iza.org

Order Information: Postal: IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Email:


Keywords: field experiment; voucher; adult education; training; Switzerland;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
  • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
  • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

as in new window
  1. Conti, Gabriella, 2005. "Training, productivity and wages in Italy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 557-576, August.
  2. Jeffrey R Kling & Jeffrey B Liebman & Lawrence F Katz, 2007. "Experimental Analysis of Neighborhood Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(1), pages 83-119, 01.
  3. Andrea Bassanini & Alison Booth & Giorgio Brunello & Maria De Paola & Edwin Leuven, 2006. "Workplace training in Europe," Post-Print halshs-00120601, HAL.
  4. Levitt, Steven D. & List, John A., 2009. "Field experiments in economics: The past, the present, and the future," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-18, January.
  5. Jesse Rothstein & Cecilia Elena Rouse, 2007. "Constrained After College: Student Loans and Early Career Occupational Choices," Working Papers 18, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Education Research Section..
  6. L Feinstein & Fernando Galindo-Rueda & Anna Vignoles, 2004. "The Labour Market Impact of Adult Education and Training: A cohort analysis," CEE Discussion Papers 0036, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
  7. Ernst Fehr & Lorenz Goette, 2007. "Do Workers Work More if Wages Are High? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 298-317, March.
  8. Uri Gneezy & John A List, 2006. "Putting Behavioral Economics to Work: Testing for Gift Exchange in Labor Markets Using Field Experiments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(5), pages 1365-1384, 09.
  9. Joshua D. Angrist, 2004. "American Education Research Changes Tack," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 198-212, Summer.
  10. Winterhager, Henrik & Heinze, Anja & Spermann, Alexander, 2006. "Deregulating Job Placement in Europe: A Microeconometric Evaluation of an Innovative Voucher Scheme in Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-11, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
  11. Bassanini, Andrea & Brunello, Giorgio, 2003. "Is Training More Frequent When Wage Compression is Higher? Evidence from the European Community Household Panel," IZA Discussion Papers 839, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  12. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman & Lance Lochner & Dimitriy V. Masterov, 2005. "Interpreting the Evidence on Life Cycle Skill Formation," NBER Working Papers 11331, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  13. Glenn W. Harrison & John A. List, 2004. "Field Experiments," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(4), pages 1009-1055, December.
  14. Viitanen, Tarja, 2007. "Public versus Private Provision of Daycare: An Experimental Evaluation," IZA Discussion Papers 3009, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  15. repec:iza:izadps:dp is not listed on IDEAS
  16. John A. List, 2007. "Field Experiments: A Bridge Between Lab and Naturally-Occurring Data," NBER Working Papers 12992, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  17. Eric Bettinger & Robert Slonim, 2005. "Using Experimental Economics to Measure the Effects of a Natural Educational Experiment on Altruism," NBER Working Papers 11725, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  18. Armin Falk, 2007. "Gift Exchange in the Field," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(5), pages 1501-1511, 09.
  19. James J. Heckman & Lance J. Lochner & Petra E. Todd, 2005. "Earnings Functions, Rates of Return and Treatment Effects: The Mincer Equation and Beyond," NBER Working Papers 11544, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  20. Dinand Webbink, 2005. "Causal Effects in Education," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 535-560, 09.
  21. Jorn-Steffen Pischke, 2004. "The impact of the school year on student performance and earnings: evidence from the German short school years," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19474, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  22. Meier Stephan, 2005. "Does Framing Matter for Conditional Cooperation? Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-21, December.
  23. Helen F. Ladd, 2002. "School Vouchers: A Critical View," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 3-24, Fall.
  24. Brunello, Giorgio, 2001. "On the Complementarity between Education and Training in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 309, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  25. Hessel Oosterbeek, 1998. "Innovative Ways to Finance Education and Their Relation to Lifelong Learning," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(3), pages 219-251.
  26. Mary A. Silles, 2007. "Adult Education And Earnings: Evidence From Britain," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 313-326, October.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. El bono de formación: ¿cómo dejar de ser promesa electoral?
    by Florentino Felgueroso in Nada Es Gratis on 2015-01-15 07:10:12
  2. Cheques formación a parados, una buena idea
    by Javier J Navarro in Elblogsalmon on 2015-03-01 15:01:30
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window


Cited by:

  1. Ruud Gerards & Andries de Grip & Maaike Witlox, 2014. "'Employability-miles' and worker employability awareness," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(9), pages 952-965, March.
  2. Christian Keuschnigg & Mirela Keuschnigg & Christian Jaag, 2009. "Aging and the Financing of Social Security in Switzerland," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2009 2009-26, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
  3. Martin Schlotter & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann, 2011. "Econometric methods for causal evaluation of education policies and practices: a non-technical guide," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 109-137.
  4. repec:zbw:rwirep:0144 is not listed on IDEAS
  5. Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (EFI), Berlin (ed.), 2012. "Research, innovation and technological performance in Germany - EFI Report 2012," Research, innovation and technological performance in Germany: Report, Expertenkommission Forschung und Innovation (EFI), volume 127, number 2012e, May.
  6. Poeschel, Friedrich, 2014. "Assignment vs. choice: lessons from training vouchers," Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100606, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
  7. Allen, J.P. & van der Velden, R.K.W., 2012. "Skills for the 21st century: implications for education," Research Memorandum 043, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
  8. Görlitz, Katja, 2009. "The Effect of Subsidizing Continuous Training Investments - Evidence from German Establishment Data," Ruhr Economic Papers 144, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
  9. Katja Görlitz, 2009. "The Effect of Subsidizing Continuous Training Investments - Evidence from German Establishment Data," Ruhr Economic Papers 0144, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
  10. Sascha O. Becker & Dolores Messer & Stefan C. Wolter, 2011. "A Gift is not Always a Gift: Gift Exchange in a Voucher Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 3488, CESifo Group Munich.

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4017. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Mark Fallak)

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.