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. It is a study commissioned by the Office of Evaluation and Oversight of the Inter-American Development Bank in accordance to the Bank's policy of ex-post evaluation of operations. The document 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, and reviews the previous impact evaluations of the training programs for the unemployed. It also includes a discussion of the methods we use for program evaluation and our main results, and presents a succinct cost-benefit analysis of the program, making use of the results of the impact evaluation.