Impact evaluation of the job youth training program Projoven

This paper brings new evidence on the impact of The Peruvian Job Youth Training Program (Projoven). Compared with prior evaluations of the program, this one has several advantages. This is the first experimental impact evaluation of Projoven, and also the first to measure impacts over a longer period: almost three years after training. Additionally, the evaluation supplements data from a follow-up survey with administrative data from the country's Electronic Payroll (Planilla Electrónica), allowing for a more accurate measure of formal employment. It also measures whether socioemotional skills of beneficiaries improved with program participation. The evaluation finds a high long term positive impact of Projoven on formal employment. It also finds certain heterogeneity of program impacts across subpopulations. Impacts on formal employment vary depending on the beneficiaries' gender and age, with different patterns of statistical significance depending on the data source used to measure employment formality. Finally, it does not find significant impacts on socio-emotional skills.