Laura Ripani

Life skills, employability and training for disadvantaged youth: Evidence from a randomized evaluation design

This paper presents an impact evaluation of a revamped version of the Dominican Republic’s youth training program Juventud y Empleo. The paper analyzes the impact of the program on traditional labor market outcomes and on outcomes related to youth behavior and life style, expectations about the future and socio-emotional skills. In terms of labor market outcomes, the program has a positive impact on job formality for men of about 17 percent and there is also a seven percent increase in monthly earnings among those employed. However, there are no overall impacts on employment rates. Regarding non-labor market outcomes, the program reduces teenage pregnancy by five percentage points in the treatment group (about 45 percent), which is consistent with an overall increase in youth expectations about the future. The program also has a positive impact on non-cognitive skills as measured by three different scales. Scores improve between 0.08 and 0.16 standard deviations with the program. Although recent progress noted in the literature suggests that socio-emotional skills increase employability and quality of employment, the practical significance of the impacts is unclear, as there is only weak evidence that the life skills measures used are associated to better labor market performance. This is an area of growing interest and relevance that requires further research.JEL codesJ24, J64, O15, O17.

Jobs for Growth

Jobs are essential for the growth of individuals and countries alike. Achieving personal fulfillment is harder without a job, just as an economy as a whole cannot develop without the impetus of the labor market. These two perspectives unquestionably go hand in hand: from the individual perspective, finding a good job is a legitimate aspiration for anyone who wishes to support oneself and ones family; from the societal perspective, creating more and better jobs is essential to the achievement of lasting and equitable growth. Jobs for Growth rests on this dual vision. This book examines the performance of the regions labor market and, based on this analysis, proposes an integrated package of measures for both personal growth (through successful career paths) and economic growth (through more high-quality jobs and higher productivity). Over the past two decades, the bullish economic cycle has yielded undeniable gains for labor markets in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), among them lower unemployment, improved job creation, and a substantial increase in wages. However, the situation on the horizon -stagnation of the regions growth and weaknesses in the global macroeconomic outlook- have increased the urgency to find solutions to todays most pressing labor problems. This volume shows that, despite the still-low unemployment rates, the region may find itself trapped in a vicious cycle of poor-quality jobs -a phenomenon especially visible in the high percentage of informal jobs (which are defined in this publication as those without access to social security benefits) and in the high proportion of very short-lived jobs. As the title Jobs for Growth indicates, breaking this cycle will require comprehensive policies that boost productivity.

Traditional Excluding Forces: A Review of the Quantitative Literature on the Economic Situation of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, and People Living with Disability

Unequal income distribution in Latin America and the Caribbean is linked to unequal distributions of human and physical assets and differential access to markets and services. These circumstances, and the accompanying social tensions, need to be understood in terms of traditional fragmenting forces; the sectors of the population that experience unfavorable outcomes are also recognized by characteristics such as ethnicity, race, gender, and physical disability. In addition to reviewing the general literature on social exclusion, this article surveys several more specific topics: relative deprivation (in land and housing, physical infrastructure, health and income); labor market issues, including access to labor markets in general, as well as informality, segregation, and discrimination; the transaction points of political representation, social protection, and violence; and areas in which analysis remains weak and avenues for further research in the region.

Traditional Excluding Forces: A Review of the Quantitative Literature on the Economic Situation of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendants, and People Living with Disability

Unequal income distribution in Latin America and the Caribbean is linked to unequal distributions of (human and physical) assets and differential access to markets and services. These circumstances, and the accompanying social tensions, need to be understood in terms of traditional fragmenting forces; the sectors of the population who experience unfavorable outcomes are also recognized by characteristics such as ethnicity, race, gender and physical disability. In addition to reviewing the general literature on social exclusion, this paper surveys several more specific topics: i) relative deprivation (in land and housing, physical infrastructure, health and income); ii) labor market issues, including access to labor markets in general, as well as informality, segregation and discrimination; iii) the transaction points of political representation, social protection and violence; and iv) areas where analysis remains weak and avenues for further research in the region.

El futuro del trabajo en América Latina y el Caribe: ¿Una gran oportunidad para la región?

En esta nota interactiva, la primera de la serie “El futuro del trabajo en America Latina y el Caribe”, abordamos este tema desde una perspectiva general, con la idea de ofrecer un marco conceptual sobre el que situar las coordenadas del debate. En primer lugar, subrayamos la gran importancia del futuro del trabajo para el devenir de nuestros paises. Despues, exploramos las dos grandes tendencias (tecnologia y demografia) que, en nuestra opinion, moldearan el futuro mercado laboral de la region. Finalmente, presentamos algunos datos relevantes para prender la mecha de la discusion sobre este tema, y abordamos que acciones o estrategias se pueden activar para enfrentar este escenario todavia incierto. *Para una correcta visualizacion de esta nota, se recomienda el uso de los programas gratuitos Adobe Reader y Flash Player.

El futuro del trabajo en América Latina y el Caribe: ¿Una gran oportunidad para la región? (versión para imprimir)

En esta nota interactiva, la primera de la serie “El futuro del trabajo en America Latina y el Caribe”, abordamos este tema desde una perspectiva general, con la idea de ofrecer un marco conceptual sobre el que situar las coordenadas del debate. En primer lugar, abordamos las dos grandes tendencias que, en nuestra opinion, marcaran el proximo mercado de trabajo: el tsunami tecnologico y el envejecimiento demografico. Sus posibles impactos en el mundo laboral, como explicamos despues, seran de gran relevancia para los paises de America Latina y el Caribe, de los que ofrecemos algunos datos interesantes con los que impulsar esta discusion. Por ultimo, presentamos que acciones o estrategias se pueden activar para enfrentar este escenario todavia incierto. Para acceder a los videos, audios y otros contenidos interactivos que subrayan los mensajes mas importantes de este documento, te invitamos a descargar la version interactiva de esta nota en http://www.iadb.org/futurodeltrabajo

Experimental Evidence on the Long-Term Effects of a Youth Training Program

Identifying the right human capital investments for disadvantaged youths is a key policy concern worldwide, yet almost no rigorous evidence on the long-run effects of these investments exists outside the United States. The authors present a large-scale randomized controlled trial of a youth training program, estimating effects six years after random assignment from a representative sample of more than 3,200 youths. The intervention is prototypical of training programs worldwide and is implemented at scale in the Dominican Republic. Empirical findings indicate, on the one hand, significant effects on formal employment, particularly for men, and on earnings for both men and women in Santo Domingo. On the other hand, no significant effects on overall average employment are evident.

Trading Places: A Decade of Earnings Mobility in Chile and Nicaragua

Abstract Using longitudinal datasets from Chile and Nicaragua, we compare intragenerational earnings mobility over a decade for two economies with similar inequality levels but divergent positions in equality of opportunities within the Latin American region. Our results suggest that earnings mobility, in terms of origin independence of individual ranking in the earnings distribution, is greater in Chile than in Nicaragua.