Rethinking the Benefits of Youth Employment Programs: The Heterogeneous Effects of Summer Jobs

• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00850
• Publication Date: 2019-06-26T17:41:46Z
• Authors: Jonathan M.V. Davis; Sara B. Heller
• Keywords: Leverage (statistics); Youth Unemployment

This paper reports the results of two randomized field experiments, each offering different populations Chicago youth a supported summer job. The program consistently reduces violent-crime arrests, even after summer, without improving employment, schooling, or other arrests; if anything, property crime increases over to three years. Using new machine learning method, we uncover heterogeneity in employment impacts that standard methods would miss, describe who benefits, and leverage explore mechanisms. We conclude brief programs can generate important behavioral change, but for outcomes, youth, reasons than those most often considered literature.