Training the Unemployed in France : How does it Affect Unemployment Duration and Recurrence ?

Econometric evaluations of public-sponsored training programmes generallyfind little evidence of an impact of such policies on transition ratesout of unemployment.We perform the first evaluation of training effectsfor the unemployed adults in France, exploiting a unique longitudinaldataset from the unemployment insurance system. Using the so-calledtiming-of-events methodology to control for both observed and unobservedheterogeneity, we find that training does not accelerate the exit from unemployment,but has a significant and positive effect on the duration ofthe subsequent employment spell. Accounting for training duration, wefind that longer training spells cause longer unemployment spells, but alsolonger employment spells, suggesting that training improves the matchingprocess between jobseekers and firms.