Skills are a central source of high productivity and economic well-being. But what do we mean by productive skills? Both with regard to measurement and policy, the primary focus in the U.S. has been on academic skills, as measured by tests of reading, writing and math abilities and by...

Mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America have been providing positive role models and building social skills for more than a century. However, most formal mentoring programs are relatively novel and researchers have only recently begun to rigorously evaluate their impact on...

This study analyses data collected among a group of young male refugees who participated in a randomised experiment. Refugees were randomly assigned to a soccer project aimed at facilitating social and labour market integration or to a control group. We evaluate the randomisation process,...

This essay aims to discuss the conditions for a successful implementation of the European Youth Guarantee in Italy. In principle, the program should be able to affect the frictional and mismatch components of unemployment, if not the Keynesian and neoclassical ones, as the experience of...

Since the beginning of the recession period in Europe, unemployment has greatly affected the young adult population. In this context, Spain is regarded as an extreme case, due to its exceptionally high youth unemployment rates. This article seeks to identify the determinants that have led...

In spring 2013, youth unemployment in the EU peaked and then declined sharply. Yet at least one in every six members of the economically active population between age 15 and 24 in the EU is still unemployed, and the unemployment rate among young persons is still 2.5 times higher than that of...

This paper characterizes the labor market of youth in Colombia from 2008 to 2017. We estimate labor market indicators for individuals aged between 14 and 28 years using microdata from Colombia's household surveys over the study period. Our estimates document the main patterns and trends in the...

Proposition 209 banned the use of racial preferences in admissions at public colleges in California. We analyze unique data for all applicants and enrollees within the University of California (UC) system before and after Prop 209. After Prop 209, minority graduation rates increased by 4.35...

We argue that once we take into account the students’ rational enrollment decisions, mismatch in the sense that the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action admission policies are made worse off ex ante can only occur if selective universities possess private information. Ex ante mismatch...

Die betriebliche Personalentwicklung erkennt zunehmend den Qualifizierungsbedarf von Beschäftigten ohne Berufsabschluss: 89 Prozent der Unternehmen, die Geringqualifizierte beschäftigen, haben in den letzten fünf Jahren mindestens eine Weiterbildungsmaßnahme für diese Zielgruppe angeboten....