IZA/World Bank Conference on Evaluation of Labor Market Programs in Developing Countries

Transcription

1 IZA/World Bank Conference on Evaluation of Labor Market Programs in Developing Countries Date: February 20 th and 21 st 2009 Location: IZA, Bonn, Germany ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Rita K. Almeida (World Bank and IZA) Markus Frölich (University of Mannheim and IZA) Jean Fares (World Bank and IZA) 1

2 Conference on Evaluation of Labor Market Programs in Developing Countries Joblessness and underemployment are one of the most challenging economic and social problems policy makers face in developing countries. Underlying these challenges are a sustained increase in the number of young people entering the labor market, an increase in the labor force participation of women, changing labor market demands, globalization and the reduced job creation even in countries undergoing high growth episodes. Policy makers across the globe struggle to find startegies that increase the probability that the jobless will find jobs, the underemployed will increase their productivity and labor income, and that schoolleavers will transition to work without extended delays. In particular, active labor market programs and youth employment programs are increasingly seen as attractive policy instruments. Each year, many countries spend important resources on these programs. However, empirical evidence of the effectiveness and efficiency of most of these programs remains largely undocumented. Despite the urgent policy demand, a good understanding of labor markets in low and middle income countries is still lacking, and knowledge gaps persist on what works and under what conditions. An evidence-based policy approach in developing countries calls for the effectiveness of labor programs to be supported by rigorous evaluations. Moreover, most of the available empirical evidence on labor market programs focuses on OECD countries, where its impact has shown to be mixed and heterogeneous. However, unlike in the case of developed countries, data quality is usually a severe constraint in developing countries. Several conferences on this topic have provided a forum for discussion and dissemination for OECD countries. The IZA/World Bank Workshop on Evaluation of Labor Market Programs in Developing Countries aims to identify lessons learned and knowledge gaps for labor market policies in developing countries. The workshop will discuss the effectiveness and efficiency of labor market programs, highlighting in particular micro evaluations of active labor market and youth employment programs. These programs include a wide range of activities intended to foster the quality of labor supply (e.g., training), to increase labor demand (e.g., public works, wage subsidies), or to improve the matching of workers and jobs (e.g., job search assistance, employment agencies, apprenticeship). Examples from developed countries will also be discussed if they provide a useful benchmark for practitioners in developing countries. The target audience for this conference includes: - Researchers at universities and development practitioners in international organizations, including the World Bank and the OECD. - Members of evaluation and research departments of multilateral and bilateral institutions, including the World Bank, BMZ/KFWS/GTZ, DFID, and AFD. - Policy makers interested in evaluation and evidence-based policy making. 2

3 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20 TH :30-09:00 Registration 09:00-09:10 Welcome and Opening Remarks Hilmar Schneider, IZA, Markus Frölich, IZA 09:10-09:30 The World Bank s Work on the Evaluation of Human Development Programs Ariel Fiszbein, Chief Economist, Word Bank 09:30-11:00 Session 1: Youth employment programs (School to work transition) 09:30-10:00 Training Disadvantaged Youth in Latin America: Evidence from a Randomized Trial" (A. Kugler, University of Houston) Adriana Kugler, Orazio Attanasio and Costas Meghir 10:00 10:30 Does Doing an Apprenticeship Pay Off? Evidence from Ghana (F. Teal, University of Oxford) Monk, C., J. Sandefur and F. Teal 10:30 10:50 Discussant: Carmen Pages (Inter American Development Bank) 10:50 11:00 General discussion 11:00-11:30 Coffee Break 11:30 13:00 Session 2: Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment Programs 11:30 11:50 Jump-Starting Self-Employment? Evidence among Welfare Participants in Argentina (Rita Almeida, World Bank) Rita K. Almeida and Emanuela Galasso 11:50-12:10 Long-Term Effects of Start-up Subsidies in Germany (M. Caliendo, IZA) Marco Caliendo and Steffen Künn 12:10 12:30 Can Entrepreneurial Activity Be Taught? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Central America (Matthias Schündeln, Harvard University) Bailey Klinger and Matthias Schündeln 12:30 12:50 Discussant: Miriam Bruhn (World Bank) 12:50 13:00 General discussion 13:00 14:00 Lunch Session 3: Evaluation Methods and Approaches 14:00 14:40 Keynote Speech. Gerard van den Berg, Free University Amsterdam 14:40-15:10 In pursuit of balance: randomization in practice in development field experiments (David McKenzie, World Bank) 15:10-15:20 Discussant: Markus Frölich, IZA 15:20-15:30 General discussion 15:30-16:00 Coffee Break 16:00 17:30 Session 4: Employment Services and Labor Market Intermediation 16:00 16:30 What Works Best for Getting the Unemployed Back to Work: Employment 3

4 Services or Small-Business Assistance Programs? Evidence from Romania (Nuria Rodriguez-Planas, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) Nuria Rodriguez-Planas 16:30 17:00 Labor Market Intermediation (Manuel F. Bagues, Universidad Carlos III) Manuel F. Bagues 17:00 17:20 Discussant: Tito Boeri, Bocconi University 17:20 17:30 General discussion 19:00 Conference Dinner SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21st :00 10:20 Session 5: World Bank Evaluations of ALMP & Youth Employment Programs 9:00 10:00 Panel Session: Evaluations of Labor Market and Youth Employment Programs in Developing Countries Chair: Ariel Fiszbein (World Bank, HD Chief Economist) Panelists: Adriana Kugler (University of Houston), Stefano Scarpetta (OECD), Gordon Betcherman (World Bank) 10:00-10:20 General discussion Session 6: Meta analysis of ALMP evaluations 10:20 10:50 The effectiveness of ALMP - a meta analysis of recent studies (Jochen Kluve, RWI Essen) David Card, Jochen Kluve and Andrea Weber 10:50 11:00 Discussant: Hartmut Lehmann (University of Bologna) 11:00 11:10 General discussion 11: Coffee Break 11:30 13:00 Session 7: Ongoing Evaluations in Low Income Countries Chair: Gordon Betcherman,World Bank 11:30 11:45 Implementation Lessons from Honduras Mi Primero Empleo, (Anna Fruttero, World Bank) 11:45 12:00 Measuring Life Skills in Youth Development Programs Lessons from the Dominican Republic (Cornelia Tesliuc, World Bank) 12:00 12:15 Evaluating Vouchers for Vocational and Technical Training in Kenya (Jonas Hjort, Berkeley University) 12:15 12:30 "The NUSAF evaluation: a cross-cutting design and innovative measurement instruments" (Sebastian Martinez, World Bank) 12:30 12:45 Evaluating Wage Subsidies and Business Training for Microenterprises in Sri Lanka (David McKenzie, World Bank) 12:45 13:00 General discussion 13:00 14:00 Lunch 4

5 14:00 15:30 Session 8: Job Training and Employment Subsidies 14:00 14:30 Evaluating the Impact of Job Training Programs in Latin America: Evidence from IDB funded operations (Pablo Ibarrarán, Inter-American Development Bank) Pablo Ibarrarán and David Rosas Shady 14:30 15:00 Do Employment Subsidies Work? Evidence from Regionally Targeted Subsidies in Turkey (Carmen Pagés and Gordon Betcherman) Gordon Betcherman, N. Meltem Daysal and Carmen Pagés 15:00 15:20 Discussant: Francis Teal, University of Oxford 15:20 15:30 General discussion 15: Coffee Break 16: Session 9: Workfare Programs 16:00 16:30 Overview of three financial workfare experiments in Canada (Philip Robins, University of Miami) Philip K. Robins 16:30 17:00 Beautiful Serbia (Ulf Rinne, IZA) Holger Bonin and Ulf Rinne 17:00 17:20 Discussant: Adriana Kugler, University of Houston 17:20 17:30 General discussion 10 minute break 17:40-18:00 Concluding Remarks and Main Knowledge Gaps Rita Almeida (World Bank) and Mario Macis (University of Michigan) 5