IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/hdnspu/67610.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Improving access to jobs and earnings opportunities : the role of activation and graduation policies in developing countries

Author

Listed:
  • Almeida, Rita
  • Arbelaez, Juliana
  • Honorati, Maddalena
  • Kuddo, Arvo
  • Lohmann, Tanja
  • Ovadiya, Mirey
  • Pop, Lucian
  • Puerta, Maria Laura Sanchez
  • Weber, Michael

Abstract

Throughout the developing world there is a growing demand for advice on the design of policies to facilitate access of the most vulnerable individuals to jobs, while reducing their dependency from public income support schemes. Even though these policies are common to both the activation and graduation agendas, a separation is needed as the graduation of beneficiaries out of poverty is a much more ambitious agenda. This paper proposes a simple policy framework highlighting the most common barriers for productive employment. It also reviews the topic of incentive compatibility of income support schemes and employment support programs that are used to address them. The paper finds that, especially in middle income countries, activation and active labor market programs play an important role connecting individuals to jobs and improving earnings opportunities. In low income countries, these programs are far from being a panacea to graduate beneficiaries out of poverty. Furthermore, only scant evidence is available on the pathways to graduation and significant knowledge gaps remain. More cross-disciplinary research is needed to strengthen the evidence base and develop recommendations for different contexts and capacity levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Almeida, Rita & Arbelaez, Juliana & Honorati, Maddalena & Kuddo, Arvo & Lohmann, Tanja & Ovadiya, Mirey & Pop, Lucian & Puerta, Maria Laura Sanchez & Weber, Michael, 2012. "Improving access to jobs and earnings opportunities : the role of activation and graduation policies in developing countries," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 67610, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:hdnspu:67610
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/03/22/000356161_20120322015722/Rendered/PDF/676100NWP012040Box367885B00PUBLIC0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emanuela Galasso & Martin Ravallion & Agustin Salvia, 2004. "Assisting the Transition from Workfare to Work: A Randomized Experiment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 58(1), pages 128-142, October.
    2. James J. Heckman & Paul A. LaFontaine, 2006. "Bias-Corrected Estimates of GED Returns," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 661-700, July.
    3. Betcherman, Gordon & Godfrey, Martin & Puerto, Susana & Rother, Friederike & Stavreska, Antoneta, 2007. "A review of interventions to support young workers : findings of the youth employment inventory," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 41412, The World Bank.
    4. Anderson, Patricia M & Meyer, Bruce D, 1993. "Unemployment Insurance in the United States: Layoff Incentives and Cross Subsidies," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 70-95, January.
    5. Catalin Pauna & John S. Earle, 1998. "Long-term unemployment, social assistance and labor market policies in Romania," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 23(1/2), pages 203-235.
    6. Emanuela Galasso, 2011. "Alleviating extreme poverty in Chile: the short term effects of Chile Solidario," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 38(1 Year 20), pages 101-127, June.
    7. Abdulai, Awudu & Barrett, Christopher B. & Hoddinott, John, 2005. "Does food aid Really have disincentive effects? New evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1689-1704, October.
    8. Núria Rodríguez-Planas & Benus Jacob, 2010. "Evaluating active labor market programs in Romania," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 65-84, February.
    9. Hessel Oosterbeek & Mirjam van Praag & Auke IJsselstein, 2008. "The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurship Competencies and Intentions," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 08-038/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    10. Robalino, David A. & Zylberstajn, Helio, 2009. "Ex-ante methods to assess the impact of social insurance policies on labor supply with an application to Brazil," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5027, The World Bank.
    11. Kuddo, Arvo, 2009. "Employment services and active labor market programs in Eastern European and Central Asian countries," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 51253, The World Bank.
    12. Michael Svarer, 2007. "The Effect of Sanctions on the Job Finding Rate: Evidence from Denmark," Economics Working Papers 2007-10, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    13. Wendy Cunningham & Maria Laura Sanchez-Puerta & Alice Wuermli, 2010. "Active Labor Market Programs for Youth : A Framework to Guide Youth Employment Interventions," World Bank Publications - Reports 11690, The World Bank Group.
    14. Richard Blundell & Monica Costa Dias & Costas Meghir & John Van Reenen, 2004. "Evaluating the Employment Impact of a Mandatory Job Search Program," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(4), pages 569-606, June.
    15. Orazio Attanasio & Adriana Kugler & Costas Meghir, 2011. "Subsidizing Vocational Training for Disadvantaged Youth in Colombia: Evidence from a Randomized Trial," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 188-220, July.
    16. Vodopivec, Milan & Worgotter, Andreas & Raju, Dhushyanth, 2003. "Unemployment benefit systems in Central and Eastern Europe : a review of the 1990s," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 26307, The World Bank.
    17. Oecd, 2009. "Employment and Social Protection," OECD Journal on Development, OECD Publishing, vol. 9(4), pages 7-54.
    18. Angel-Urdinola, Diego F. & Semlali, Amina & Brodmann, Stefanie, 2010. "Non-public provision of active labor market programs in Arab- Mediterranean countries : an inventory of youth programs," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 55673, The World Bank.
    19. David Robalino & Arup Banerji, 2009. "Addressing the Employment Effects of the Financial Crisis : The Role of Wage Subsidies and Reduced Work Schedules," World Bank Publications - Reports 11717, The World Bank Group.
    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. International Labour Organization., 2015. "Global employment trends for youth 2015 : scaling up investments in decent jobs for youth," Global Employment Trends Reports 994891803402676, International Labour Office, Economic and Labour Market Analysis Department.
    2. Umapathi, Nithin & Wang, Dewen & O'Keefe, Philip, 2013. "Eligibility thresholds for minimum living guarantee programs : international practices and implications for China," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 83118, The World Bank.
    3. Milan Vodopivec, 2013. "Introducing unemployment insurance to developing countries," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-23, December.
    4. Premand, Patrick & Brodmann, Stefanie & Almeida, Rita & Grun, Rebekka & Barouni, Mahdi, 2016. "Entrepreneurship Education and Entry into Self-Employment Among University Graduates," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 311-327.
    5. Honorati,Maddalena, 2015. "The impact of private sector internship and training on urban youth in Kenya," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7404, The World Bank.
    6. Cerutti, Paula & Fruttero, Anna & Grosh, Margaret & Kostenbaum, Silvana & Oliveri, Maria Laura & Rodriguez-Alas, Claudia & Strokova, Victoria, 2014. "Social assistance and labor market programs in Latin America : methodology and key findings from the social protection database," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 88769, The World Bank.
    7. World Bank Group, 2016. "Activation and Public Employment Services in Poland," World Bank Publications - Reports 29831, The World Bank Group.
    8. Honorati, Maddalena & McArdle, Thomas P, 2013. "The nuts and bolts of designing and implementing training programs in developing countries," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 78980, The World Bank.
    9. David Robalino & Michael Weber, 2013. "Designing and implementing unemployment benefit systems in middle and low income countries: beyond risk-pooling vs savings," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-20, December.
    10. Mirey Ovadiya & Frieda Vandeninden, 2017. "Portraits of Labor Market Exclusion 2.0," World Bank Publications - Reports 29629, The World Bank Group.
    11. Domelen, Julie van, 2012. "Togo : towards a national social protection policy and strategy," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 89000, The World Bank.
    12. World Bank, 2012. "Resilience, Equity, and Opportunity [Capacidad de recuperación, equidad y oportunidades]," World Bank Publications - Reports 12648, The World Bank Group.
    13. Groh, Matthew & Krishnan, Nandini & McKenzie, David & Vishwanath, Tara, 2012. "Soft skills or hard cash ? the impact of training and wage subsidy programs on female youth employment in Jordan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6141, The World Bank.
    14. Armand, Alex & Carneiro, Pedro & Tagliati, Federico & Xia, Yiming, 2020. "Can Subsidized Employment Tackle Long-Term Unemployment? Experimental Evidence from North Macedonia," IZA Discussion Papers 13478, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Premand, Patrick & Brodmann, Stefanie & Almeida, Rita K. & Grun, Rebekka & Barouni, Mahdi, 2012. "Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment among University Graduates: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Tunisia," IZA Discussion Papers 7079, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Franziska Gassmann & Daphne Francois & Lorena Zardo Trindade, 2015. "Improving Labor Market Outcomes for Poor and Vulnerable Groups in Mongolia," World Bank Publications - Reports 23671, The World Bank Group.
    17. Robalino, David A. & Weber, Michael, 2013. "Designing and implementing unemployment benefit systems in middle and low income countries : key choices between insurance and savings accounts," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 90348, The World Bank.
    18. Robalino, David & Margolis, David & Rother, Friederike & Newhouse, David & Lundberg, Mattias, 2013. "Youth employment : a human development agenda for the next decade," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 83925, The World Bank.
    19. Rita Almeida & Larry Orr & David Robalino, 2014. "Wage subsidies in developing countries as a tool to build human capital: design and implementation issues," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-24, December.
    20. Dorfman, Mark & Palacios, Robert, 2012. "World Bank support for pensions and social security," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 70925, The World Bank.

    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. Peter J. Glick & Crystal Huang & Nelly Mejia, 2015. "The Private Sector and Youth Skills and Employment Programs in Low and Middle-Income Countries," World Bank Publications - Reports 23260, The World Bank Group.
    2. Diego Angel-Urdinola & Rene Leon-Solano, 2013. "A reform agenda for improving the delivery of ALMPs in the MENA region," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-25, December.
    3. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Biavaschi, Costanza & Eichhorst, Werner & Giulietti, Corrado & Kendzia, Michael J. & Muravyev, Alexander & Pieters, Janneke & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria & Schmidl, Ricarda, 2013. "Youth Unemployment and Vocational Training," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 9(1–2), pages 1-157, December.
    4. World Bank Group, 2015. "Toward Solutions for Youth Employment," World Bank Publications - Reports 23261, The World Bank Group.
    5. Angel-Urdinola, Diego F. & Semlali, Amina & Brodmann, Stefanie, 2010. "Non-public provision of active labor market programs in Arab- Mediterranean countries : an inventory of youth programs," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 55673, The World Bank.
    6. Premand, Patrick & Brodmann, Stefanie & Almeida, Rita & Grun, Rebekka & Barouni, Mahdi, 2016. "Entrepreneurship Education and Entry into Self-Employment Among University Graduates," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 311-327.
    7. World Bank, 2012. "Republic of Lebanon--Good Jobs Needed : The Role of Macro, Investment, Education, Labor and Social Protection Policies," World Bank Publications - Reports 13217, The World Bank Group.
    8. Kluve, Jochen & Puerto, Susanna & Robalino, David & Romero, José Manuel & Rother, Friederike & Stöterau, Jonathan & Weidenkaff, Felix & Witte, Marc, 2016. "Do Youth Employment Programs Improve Labor Market Outcomes? A Systematic Review," Ruhr Economic Papers 648, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    9. Goulas, Eleftherios & Zervoyianni, Athina, 2018. "Active labour-market policies and output growth: Is there a causal relationship?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-14.
    10. Janice Tripney & Mark Newman & Kimberly Hovish & Chris Brown, 2012. "PROTOCOL: Post‐basic Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Interventions to Improve Employability and Employment of TVET Graduates in Low‐ and Middle‐income Countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(1), pages 1-53.
    11. Evelyn Vezza, 2014. "Escaneo de Políticas y Meta-Análisis: Juventud y Políticas de Empleo en América Latina (Policy scan and meta-analysis: Youth and Employment policies in Latin America)," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0156, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    12. Alessio Brown & Johannes Koettl, 2015. "Active labor market programs - employment gain or fiscal drain?," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-36, December.
    13. Milan Vodopivec, 2004. "Income Support for the Unemployed : Issues and Options," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14922.
    14. Chakravarty, Shubha & Lundberg, Mattias & Nikolov, Plamen & Zenker, Juliane, 2019. "Vocational training programs and youth labor market outcomes: Evidence from Nepal," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 71-110.
    15. Janice Tripney & Jorge Hombrados & Mark Newman & Kimberly Hovish & Chris Brown & Katarzyna Steinka‐Fry & Eric Wilkey, 2013. "Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Interventions to Improve the Employability and Employment of Young People in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: A Systematic Review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(1), pages 1-171.
    16. Vodopivec, Milan & Raju, Dhushyanth, 2002. "Income support systems for the unemployed : issues and options," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 25529, The World Bank.
    17. Premand, Patrick & Brodmann, Stefanie & Almeida, Rita K. & Grun, Rebekka & Barouni, Mahdi, 2012. "Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment among University Graduates: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Tunisia," IZA Discussion Papers 7079, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Chung Choe & Alfonso Flores-Lagunes & Sang-Jun Lee, 2015. "Do dropouts with longer training exposure benefit from training programs? Korean evidence employing methods for continuous treatments," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 849-881, March.
    19. Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2007. "What Works Best for Getting the Unemployed Back to Work: Employment Services or Small-Business Assistance Programmes? Evidence from Romania," IZA Discussion Papers 3051, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Grimm, Michael & Paffhausen, Anna Luisa, 2015. "Do interventions targeted at micro-entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized firms create jobs? A systematic review of the evidence for low and middle income countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 67-85.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor Markets; Safety Nets and Transfers; Labor Policies; Rural Poverty Reduction; Poverty Impact Evaluation;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wbk:hdnspu:67610. 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: Aaron F Buchsbaum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wrldbus.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.