This paper provides findings of a small-scale, innovative labor training program that uses expressive arts and theatre as a pedagogical tool. The corresponding life skills training component is combined with a technical component teaching vocational skills. To our knowledge, this is the first...

We present a meta-analysis of impact estimates from over 200 recent econometric evaluations of active labor market programs from around the world. We classify estimates by program type and participant group, and distinguish between three different post-program time horizons. Using meta-analytic...

As a response to an overall high and persistent unemployment rate during the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium, the German Federal Employment Agency underwent several reforms. One of the most important reforms, the reform of the organisational structure of the Federal Employment...

We estimate the effect of language training on subsequent employment and wages of immigrants under essential heterogeneity. The identifying variation is based on regional differences in language training availability that we use to instrument endogenous participation. Estimating marginal...

This paper assesses the dynamics of treatment effects arising from variation in the duration of training. We use German administrative data that have the extraordinary feature that the amount of treatment varies continuously from 10 days to 395 days (i.e. 13 months).This feature allows us to...

Improving youth labor market outcomes is a primary concern for countries around the world. We conduct a randomized controlled trial in Tanzania on an intense gender-sensitive skills training program that worked with over 53,000 youth in the region. After two years, we find the program increased...

Information frictions about the benefits of migration can lead to inefficient migration choices. We study the effects of a randomly assigned information treatment about regional income differentials in Ghana and Uganda to learn about participants' belief updating and subsequent changes in...

Does pro-immigrant legislation improve financial inclusion? This paper examines how granting safe havens for immigrants impacts Hispanics' financial behavior and discrimination against them in the U.S. mortgage market. To identify the effect, I take advantage of the staggered implementation of...

While high rates of youth unemployment are a severe problem in most European countries, the program evaluation literature shows that disadvantaged youths constitute a group that is particularly difficult to assist effectively. As innovative measures are thus needed, we evaluate a German pilot...

We provide comprehensive evidence on the consequences of automation and offshoreability on the career of unemployed workers and the role of public policies. Using almost two decades of administrative data for Austria, we find that risk of automation is reducing the job finding probability; a...