Labor Training and Employability Evidence of My First Worthy Job

Abstract

This document presents an impact evaluation of the pilot program Mi Primer Empleo Digno (MPED), an active labor market program that provides classroom training and paid internships to low income youth from January 2009 to June 210 in main cities in Bolivia. Taking advantage of the discontinuities generated by the programs targeting scheme, we use fuzzy regression discontinuity design (FRDD) to estimate the local average treatment effect of the treatment (LATE) for compliers of MPED's selection rules on post-program employability measured as both, post-program participation, employment and "formal j employment prospects and post-program labor earnings. We find that compliers with the program selection rules had increase their participation, employment and "formal" employment probabilities but only temporarily, i.e. our LATE estimates are significant one quarter after the program was terminated; but we find no evidence of permanent long term effects, i.e. our LATE estimates tum out not significant two quarters after the program was terminated.