Janneke Pieters

Youth Unemployment and Vocational Training

This paper focuses on the determinants of the labor market situation of young people in developed countries and the developing world, with a special emphasis on the role of vocational training and education policies. We highlight the role of demographic factors, economic growth and labor market institutions in explaining young peoples transition into work. We then assess differences in the setup and functioning of the vocational education and training policies in major world regions, as an important driver of differential labor market situation of youth. Based on our analysis we argue in favor of vocational education and training systems combining work experience and general education and give some policy recommendations regarding the implementation of education and training systems adapted to a countrys economic and institutional context.

Education and household inequality change : a decomposition analysis for India

Abstract Rising returns to education have increased wage inequality in many developing countries, but their impact on inequality between households is less clear. This study asks how education contributed to household inequality in India during the period 1993–2004, using a regression based decomposition method. We find that rising returns to education of employees did not increase household inequality, because many household heads are self-employed. Instead, rising inequality in education contributed to higher inequality, partly because fertility declined more slowly among illiterates. These new insights into the education-inequality relationship in India underline the importance of household-level analysis to complement earnings inequality research.