This study uses meta-analysis to synthesize findings from 31 evaluations of 15 voluntary government-funded training programs for the disadvantaged that operated between 1964 and 1998. On average, the earnings effects of the evaluated programs seem to have been largest for women, quite modest for...

Data from 76 experimental welfare-to-work programs conducted in the United States between 1983 and 1998 are used to investigate whether the impacts of such programs on employment had been improving over time and whether specific program features influencing such changes can be identified. Over...

DWP runs a range of employment programmes. The department has regularly undertaken comparative cost benefit analyses (CBAs) of large numbers of these programmes. These exercises estimate the absolute and relative cost effectiveness of the various interventions. The department also frequently...

Community colleges now serve over one-third of our nation’s post-secondary students each year. Because they have open admissions and are relatively low cost, they enroll larger percentages of low-income students than four-year institutions. Unfortunately, as enrollment in these colleges has...

This paper describes, somewhat overlapping, types of flaws that have occurred in social experiments. Each flaw is illustrated with examples from previous experiments. Some of these problems result in minor hurdles, while others cause experiments to fail — that is, the experiment is unable to...

Family Rewards was an innovative approach to poverty reduction in the United States that was modelled on the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs common in lower- and middle-income countries. The program offered cash assistance to poor families to reduce immediate hardship, provided they met...

Books reviewed in this article: Masahisa Fujita and Jacques-Francois Thisse - Economics of Agglomeration: Cities, Industrial Location, and Regional Growth Timothy J. Bartik - Jobs for the Poor: Can Labor Policies Help? Miriam Solomon - Social Empiricism Nicole Pohl - Mobility in Space and Time:...

This report presents a preliminary cost analysis of Britain's Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) demonstration, which has been carefully evaluated through a large-scale randomized control trial. Aimed at helping low-income individuals sustain employment and progress in work, ERA is...