Vocational training and labour market outcomes: Evidence from Youth Guarantee in Latvia
The aim of this report is to evaluate the impact of a vocational training (VT) programme introduced in Latvia in 2014 and targeted at unemployed youth. The training programme is part of the Youth Guarantee scheme supporting young people aged 15-29 who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs). This study is one of the first evaluations of a Youth Guarantee programme implemented in the programming period 2014-2020. Exploiting a priority rule given to Latvian youth under the age of 25, we use a Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design (FRDD) in order to identify the causal effect of participating in the VT programme on employment outcomes. The priority rule is used to estimate the model through instrumental variables techniques by means of Two Stages Least Squares estimators.
We merge rich administrative data from the State Employment Agency of Latvia, which provide information on persons who are registered as unemployed (participants and non-participants), with data from the Latvian State Revenue Service, which provide information on income before and after the programme.
The estimated effects of the programme on employment and monthly income are positive but not statistically significant, although we find a strong positive effect of the priority rule on programme participation. Overall, our findings are in line with those from the literature on the evaluation of active labour market policies targeting youth.
BRATTI Massimiliano;
GHIRELLI Corinna;
HAVARI Enkelejda;
LEIKUCS Janis;
SANTANGELO Giulia;
STRAUTMANIS Normunds;
2018-09-27
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC110247
978-92-79-77535-2 (online),
978-92-79-77534-5 (print),
1831-9424 (online),
1018-5593 (print),
EUR 29037 EN,
OP KJ-NA-29037-EN-N (online),
OP KJ-NA-29037-EN-C (print),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC110247,
10.2760/571879 (online),
10.2760/349323 (print),
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