Do Labor Market Policies Have Displacement Effects? Evidence from a Clustered Randomized Experiment

57 Pages Posted: 2 Dec 2012

See all articles by Bruno Crepon

Bruno Crepon

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - National School for Statistical and Economic Administration (ENSAE); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Esther Duflo

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics; Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD)

Marc Gurgand

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS); National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST)

Roland Rathelot

Institut Polytechnique de Paris; CREST-ENSAE

Philippe Zamora

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - National School for Statistical and Economic Administration (ENSAE)

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 10, 2012

Abstract

This paper reports the results from a randomized experiment designed to evaluate the direct and indirect (displacement) impacts of job placement assistance on the labor market outcomes of young, educated job seekers in France. We use a two-step design. In the first step, the proportions of job seekers to be assigned to treatment (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% or 100%) were randomly drawn for each of the 235 labor markets (e.g. cities) participating in the experiment. Then, in each labor market, eligible job seekers were randomly assigned to the treatment, following this proportion. After eight months, eligible, unemployed youths who were assigned to the program were significantly more likely to have found a stable job than those who were not. But these gains are transitory, and they appear to have come partly at the expense of eligible workers who did not benefit from the program, particularly in labor markets where they compete mainly with other educated workers, and in weak labor markets. Overall, the program seems to have had very little net benefits.

Keywords: job placement, counseling, displacement effects, randomized experiment

JEL Classification: J68, J64, C93

Suggested Citation

Crepon, Bruno and Duflo, Esther and Gurgand, Marc and Rathelot, Roland and Zamora, Philippe, Do Labor Market Policies Have Displacement Effects? Evidence from a Clustered Randomized Experiment (November 10, 2012). MIT Department of Economics Working Paper No. 12-26, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2184042 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2184042

Bruno Crepon

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - National School for Statistical and Economic Administration (ENSAE) ( email )

92245 Malakoff Cedex
France

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Esther Duflo (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics ( email )

50 Memorial Drive
Room E52-544
Cambridge, MA 02139
United States
617-258-7013 (Phone)
617-253-6915 (Fax)

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) ( email )

Cambridge, MA
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.povertyactionlab.org/

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) ( email )

Duke University
Durham, NC 90097
United States

Marc Gurgand

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) ( email )

3, rue Michel-Ange
Paris cedex 16, 75794
France

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST)

15 Boulevard Gabriel Peri
Malakoff Cedex, 1 92245
France

Roland Rathelot

Institut Polytechnique de Paris ( email )

Palaiseau Cedex
France

CREST-ENSAE ( email )

France

Philippe Zamora

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - National School for Statistical and Economic Administration (ENSAE) ( email )

92245 Malakoff Cedex
France

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
137
Abstract Views
1,674
Rank
311,243
PlumX Metrics