Machine learning tools are well known for their success in prediction. But prediction is not causation, and causal discovery is at the core of most questions concerning economic policy. Recently, however, the literature has focused more on issues of causality. This paper gently introduces some...

This paper evaluates an Austrian manpower training program, which is highly innovative in its content and financing - and could therefore serve as a role model for other programs. In the late 1980s privatization and down-sizing of nationalized steel firms have lead to large-scale redundancies. A...

Recent policy suggestions from the European Community underlined the importance of “efficiency” and “equity” in the provision of education while, at the same time, the European countries are required to provide their educational services by minimizing the amount of public money devoted...

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...

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have spread worldwide as a new form of social assistance for the poor. Previous evaluations of CCT programs focus mainly on rural settings, and little is known about their effects in urban areas. This paper studies the short-term (one and two-year)...