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An Experimental Evaluation of Philadelphia WorkReady

Last registered on September 27, 2017
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
An Experimental Evaluation of Philadelphia WorkReady
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002451
Initial registration date
September 21, 2017

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
September 21, 2017, 1:33 PM EDT

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

Last updated
September 27, 2017, 5:07 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region
Mid-Atlantic

Primary Investigator

Name
Sara Heller
Affiliation
University of Michigan
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2017-07-03
End date
2022-08-30
Keywords
Education, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The City of Philadelphia Mayor’s Office and the Philadelphia Youth Network are partnering to conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of WorkReady, a summer jobs program for disadvantaged youth. Recent evidence from random-assignment studies shows that summer jobs programs in New York City and Chicago dramatically reduce violence involvement among participants, but have small, if any, effects on education and employment. The Philadelphia study is intended to 1) assess how generalizable the prior findings are by testing the crime, employment, and school effects of a different summer jobs program in a new setting (pending data availability), and 2) to better understand mechanisms by expanding tests for program effects to other socially-costly correlates of violence that may also be affected. To study these questions, we will allocate about 1,000 of the 8,000 summer WorkReady slots by lottery. We will track youth in a range of administrative data, as well as collect some supplementary qualitative evidence about youth experiences.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Heller, Sara. 2017. "An Experimental Evaluation of Philadelphia WorkReady." AEA RCT Registry. September 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2451-2.0
Former Citation
Heller, Sara. 2017. "An Experimental Evaluation of Philadelphia WorkReady." AEA RCT Registry. September 27. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2451/history/21867
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) has offered a youth summer jobs programs called WorkReady for over 15 years. Using a blend of government and private funding, PYN contracts with 50-60 local agencies that implement the six-week WorkReady summer program. Youth ages 14 to 21 apply with a common application either to PYN or to a local agency directly. Program youth are assigned to a local provider, which places them in one of three program models (service learning, work experience, or internship). All three models focus on developing “21st-Century Workforce Skills” and offer an hourly wage.
Intervention Start Date
2017-07-03
Intervention End Date
2017-08-25

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Final outcomes will depend on data availability. Outcomes for which we are pursuing data include: criminal behavior, education engagement and performance, labor market involvement, health, fertility, and household functioning. We are also conducting qualitative interviews and observations with a small number of study subjects to help document program implementation and context, understand the counterfactual condition, and generate hypotheses about mechanisms.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Demand regularly outpaces available resources; last year over 16,000 youth applied for a summer job through PYN, while less than half were awarded a working opportunity. Historically, slots have been allocated either by first-come, first-served policies or by the choice of the provider. For the 2017 program, PYN has committed to a more equitable distribution of a subset of program slots through the implementation of a fair lottery. Youth applicants will be blocked by age and geographic location, then individually randomly assigned to be offered the program or not.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization will be conducted by the researchers on a computer in an office.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
We anticipate randomizing around 3,000 applicants for 1,000 program slots.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Youth will be assigned to different program types, but not randomly. So there is a single treatment arm.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
With 100% take-up, the MDE would be about 0.1. Based on the pilot study, however, we expect the effective take-up rate to be between 30 and 50 percent. If the resulting power is too low, we may repeat the study in summer 2018.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2017-04-13
IRB Approval Number
2017-02
IRB Name
University of Pennsylvania Office of Regulatory Affairs, Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2017-03-09
IRB Approval Number
Protocol 826728
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials