As part of the Vilfredo Pareto Research Seminar series, the International Economics Department at the Graduate Institute is pleased to invite you to the public talk

Creating New Positions? Direct and Indirect Effects of a Subsidized Apprenticeship Program
(coauthored with Bruno Crépon), given by  Patrick Premand, Senior Economist at the World Bank.

Patrick Premand is a Senior Economist in the Social Protection and Labor Global Practice at the World Bank. His research focuses on building evidence on the effectiveness of development policies through impact evaluations of large-scale social and human development programs. He held various positions at the World Bank, including in the Human Development Economics Unit of the Africa region, the Office of the Chief Economist for Human Development, and the Poverty Unit of the Latin America and Caribbean region. He holds a DPhil in Economics from Oxford University.

Abstract: Evaluations of employment programs usually focus on direct impacts on participants, but potential indirect effects are rarely quantified. This paper analyzes how the introduction of a subsidized apprenticeship program in Côte d’Ivoire impacts youths’ decision to enter apprenticeship and firms’ demand for apprentices in the short-term. The experiment simultaneously randomized whether apprenticeship positions opened by firms were filled by the program, and whether interested youths were assigned to a formal apprenticeship. This design allows for estimating whether individuals forgo other apprenticeship opportunities (windfall effects), and whether firms replace other apprentices with program participants (substitution effects). We find both effects to be moderate. A framework shows how they combine. Overall, 0.74 to 0.77 apprenticeship position is created per subsidized apprentice. This shows that the intervention expands access to apprenticeships and increases the net number of positions in firms. The subsidy offsets foregone labor earnings while youth are in formal apprenticeships. At the same time, the net value of work provided by apprentices increases, pointing to large indirect effects in firms.

The Vilfredo Pareto Research Seminar is our Departmental weekly seminar, featuring external speakers in all areas of economics. The organizer for this academic year is Prof. Julia Cajal-Grossi.