Abstract
Crime rates in Papua New Guinea’s capital city of Port Moresby are among the highest in the world. Few youth work, and good jobs are scarce. In 2013, the National Capital District Commission partnered with the World Bank to implement the Urban Youth Employment Project. The project offers out-of-school and out-of-work youth 2 months of public works employment or, for academically qualified candidates, 6 months of classroom and on-the-job training. This paper presents difference-in-differences estimates of project impacts on participants’ social and criminal behavior, 12 to 18 months after completion. The control group consists of observably similar youth living in areas not served by the program. Project participants became less likely to hang out with friends at night, have a best friend involved in crime, and have friends involved in fights or robberies. The program also increased subsequent employment rates and significantly reduced aggressive behavior and gratuitous property damage. However, there is little robust evidence that the program reduced participants’ engagement in or exposure to crime. The study concludes that the program had strong and healthy effects on participants’ peer group and behavior, but more limited effects on the socio-economic causes of crime.
Highlights
Active labor market programs (ALMPs) aim to increase the employment, employability, and income of participants
This study seeks to fill the gap Ivaschenko et al IZA Journal of Development and Migration (2017) 7:9 using unique data collected in Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea (PNG)
Before discussing the main results, the first subsection describes the socio-economic context of Port Moresby and presents descriptive evidence on the extent of crime and anti-social behavior from the baseline sample
Summary
Active labor market programs (ALMPs) aim to increase the employment, employability, and income of participants. They have a decidedly mixed track record of raising employment and earnings, and tend to have modest impacts, especially in the short run.. There has been greater interest in the potential for ALMPs to offer non-pecuniary benefits to young participants, such as a reduction in risky behavior and criminal activity. In contexts where unemployment and crime are both high, ALMPs have the potential to improve social as well as economic outcomes. Little evidence exists regarding the impacts of ALMPs on social indicators such as crime, especially in fragile contexts.. Little evidence exists regarding the impacts of ALMPs on social indicators such as crime, especially in fragile contexts. This study seeks to fill the gap Ivaschenko et al IZA Journal of Development and Migration (2017) 7:9 using unique data collected in Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea (PNG)
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