This paper examines the performance of the JTPA performance system, a widely emulated model for inducing efficiency in government organizations. We present a model of how performance incentives may distort bureaucratic decisions. We define cream skimming within the model. Two major empirical...

This paper decomposes the participation process of a prototypical program into eligibility, awareness, application, acceptance and enrollment. With this decomposition, we determine the soures of unequal participation for different groups, and demonstrate that variables often have very different...

Using a variety of data sources, the contributors explore how performance standards and incentives affect the behavior of public managers and agency employees, their approaches to service delivery, and ultimately, the outcomes for participants.

Temporary Help Services (THS) employment has been growing in size, particularly among disadvantaged workers. An extended policy debate focuses on the low earnings, limited benefits, and insecurity that such jobs appear to provide. We investigate the earnings and wage differentials observed...

The Programa Nacional de Becas Estudiantiles is a conditional cash transfer program designed to promote long-term human capital accumulation among Argentine youth and to reduce poverty. This study follows a 1999 cohort of students from 24 schools for five years. Propensity score matching methods...

Social investment funds, a widely used tool of development efforts, aim to support and strengthen local capacity for effective implementation of social and economic infrastructure projects through participatory, community-driven approaches. This working paper investigates whether these...

The primary objectives of the program are to support the retention, promotion and graduation of students in the EGB, thus increasing educational attainment and promoting human capital development among Argentine youth.

Temporary help services (THS) firms are increasing their hiring of disadvantaged individuals and claiming more subsidies for doing so. Do these subsidies—the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit (WtW)—create incentives that improve employment outcomes for THS...