The Short Term Impact On Participants Of Selected Youth Employment And Training Programs

Do government-sponsored youth employment programs actually help? Between 1978 and 1981, the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act (YEDPA) funded extensive programs designed to aid disadvantaged youth. The Committee on Youth Employment Programs examined the voluminous research performed by YEDPA and produced a comprehensive report and evaluation of the YEDPA efforts to assist the underprivileged. Beginning with YEDPA's inception and effective lifespan, this report goes on to analyze the data it generated, evaluate its accuracy, and draw conclusions about which YEDPA programs were effective, which were not, and why. A discussion of YEDPA strategies and their perceived value concludes the volume.

We study the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) -- the first and largest youth training program in the U.S. in operation between 1933 and 1942 -– to provide the first comprehensive assessment of the short- and long-term effects of means-tested youth employment programs. We use digitized enrollee records from the CCC program in Colorado and New Mexico and matched these records to the 1940 Census, WWII enlistment records, Social Security Administration records, and death certificates. We find that enrollees who spent more time in CCC training grew taller, lived longer lives and had higher lifetime earnings as a result of their participation in the program. We also find modest increases in the educational attainment of the participants and increases in short term geographic mobility. In contrast, we find no evidence that their labor force participation or wages increased in the short run. To assess the internal and external validity of the results, we compare our estimates to those derived from a randomized evaluation of Job Corps, the modern version of the CCC, conducted in the 1990s. The RCT’s results show that our empirical strategy delivers estimates that are in line with the experimental estimates. Overall, we find significant long-term benefits in both longevity and earnings, suggesting short and medium-term evaluations underestimate the returns of training programs, as do those that fail to consider effects on longevity.

In the first IEG evaluation of World Bank Group support to youth employment, the findings reveal short-term effects, limited positive results, and lack of evidence. The focus is on investment climate, labor market, and skills. An evidence-based, strategic approach using youth-specific, complementary interventions and multisectoral teams is needed.

Paper presented to the 1986 National Evaluation Conference, Sydney July 24-25, 1986.