An Evaluation of Training for the Unemployed in Mexico.

This paper summarizes the findings of an impact evaluation of the Mexican training programs PROBECAT_SICAT for the period 1999-2004. The paper has five additional sections. Section 2 provides an account of the Mexican public policy towards the unemployed and a description of the institutional and operative capacity of this policy for the last two decades. In this section we explain the evolution of pro-cyclical behavior of unemployment and informal employment with respect to economic growth in Mexico. Moreover, we describe the origins and organization of labor public policy in Mexico and describe the evolution of the training for the unemployed programs PROBECAT/SICAT. Section three reviews the previous impact evaluations of the training programs for the unemployed. Section four includes a discussion of the methods we use for program evaluation and our main results. Section five, presents a succinct cost-benefit analysis of the program, making use of the results of the impact evaluation. Finally, section six concludes with a summary of results.