The Effects of Working while in School: Evidence from Employment Lotteries

Last registered on November 09, 2023
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Effects of Working while in School: Evidence from Employment Lotteries
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002287
Initial registration date
January 31, 2018

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 31, 2018, 2:40 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
November 09, 2023, 10:38 AM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
Uruguay
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Thomas Le Barbanchon
Affiliation
Universita' Commerciale "Luigi Bocconi"
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Diego Ubfal
PI Affiliation
Universita' Commerciale "Luigi Bocconi"
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Federico Araya
PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2017-01-01
End date
2018-12-31
Keywords
Education, Labor
Additional Keywords
school-to-work transition, youth unemployment, in-school work, soft skills, randomized experiment, informality.
JEL code(s)
J08, J22, J24, I21, I28, J13
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The aim of the project is to study the effects of a program offering temporary employment to young people registered in schools in Uruguay. The program, called “Yo estudio y trabajo”, is unique because it allocates jobs through a lottery, which gives the opportunity to obtain for the first time robust estimates of the effects of working while studying. We plan to study effects on employment (formal and informal), earnings and education attainment combining both administrative and survey data. We will specifically focus on how young people manage to coordinate their work and study schedules, and on the effects of early work experience on the acquisition of non-cognitive skills.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Le Barbanchon, Thomas, Federico Araya and Diego Ubfal. 2023. "The Effects of Working while in School: Evidence from Employment Lotteries." AEA RCT Registry. November 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2287-4.0
Former Citation
Le Barbanchon, Thomas, Federico Araya and Diego Ubfal. 2023. "The Effects of Working while in School: Evidence from Employment Lotteries." AEA RCT Registry. November 09. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2287/history/200609
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2017-01-01
Intervention End Date
2018-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Labor market (formal and informal employment, wages, hours worked) and education
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We leverage the lottery that assigns the program to willing-to-participate young people
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Public Lottery
Randomization Unit
Individual randomization
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
There are 5 yearly cohorts of participants (2012-2016). Each year, 600 individuals are traeted, around 20,000 are controls.
Sample size: planned number of observations
More than 100,000 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
The administrative data will yield information on the universe of individuals going through the lottery (3,000 treated individuals and more than 100,000 controls). 1,200 individuals of the last cohort will be surveyed (600 treated and 600 controls).
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics committee of Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi
IRB Approval Date
2017-07-24
IRB Approval Number
no
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
December 30, 2017, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 30, 2017, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
We restricted the analysis of admin data to 3 cohorts, 122,195 observations
We surveyed 1,272 individuals
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
We restricted the analysis of admin data to 3 cohorts, 122,195 observations
We surveyed 1,272 individuals
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Admin data: 119,366 control, 2,829 treated Survey data: 703 treated, 666 control
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
Yes
Public Data URL
https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/151261/version/V1/view

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Program Files

Program Files
Yes
Program Files URL
https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/151261/version/V1/view
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
Does working while in school smooth students' transition into the labor market? We provide evidence on this question by leveraging a one-year work-study program that randomized job offers among over 90,000 student applicants in Uruguay. Program rules forbade employers from employing participants in the same job after program completion, and less than 5 percent of participants ever worked in the same firm again. Two years after the program, participants had 8 percent higher earnings. Our results suggest that the program's focus on work-related skills was a key mechanism for earnings impacts
Citation
Le Barbanchon, Thomas, Diego Ubfal, and Federico Araya. 2023. "The Effects of Working While in School: Evidence from Employment Lotteries." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 15 (1): 383-410.
URL
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20210041

Reports & Other Materials