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Reframing active labor market policy: Experimental evidence of training vouchers for unemployed

Last registered on February 15, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Reframing active labor market policy: Experimental evidence of training vouchers for unemployed
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007141
Initial registration date
February 09, 2021

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
February 09, 2021, 11:38 AM EST

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

Last updated
February 15, 2021, 1:39 PM EST

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

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Oxford

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Vienna University of Economics and Business

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-02-10
End date
2026-02-05
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This document describes the research design and analysis strategy of our field experiment, designed to boost training and employment of unemployed. We start with a detailed outline of the intervention, which takes place in early 2021 during a Covid-19 induced partial lockdown in the region of Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) in Austria. Unemployed receive an email newsletter, which for some contains a training voucher and additional information on job vacancies. We designed multiple different treatment arms to separate out direct effects of raising awareness,
supporting reciprocity, and strengthening autonomy. We provide a detailed discussion of our sample selection, variables used and the handling of the data to make the analysis as transparent and replicable as possible. We report the outcomes of our strati ed randomization. Further, we state our hypotheses and outcomes of interest motivated by the active labour market policy evaluation literature. Finally, we conclude by specifying our statistical approach to inference.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Lehner, Lukas and Anna Schwarz. 2021. "Reframing active labor market policy: Experimental evidence of training vouchers for unemployed." AEA RCT Registry. February 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7141-1.1
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In February and March 2021, we launch a field experiment designed in cooperation and implemented by the Public Employment Service (PES) of Lower Austria (Arbeitsmarktservice Niederösterreich (AMS NÖ)). The aim is to increase training and employment among the unemployed by increasing participation in and completion of training programs. The intervention consists of an email newsletter that invites unemployed, who have been registered as unemployed for 3 to 12 months, to voluntarily contact the PES to arrange a consultation on training programs. The newsletters will be sent in three waves on February 9th, February 16th, and March 9th. Individuals are assigned to the waves depending on their duration of unemployment.

Three different treatment arms vary the type of information provided and the (perceived) autonomy that the unemployed have in choosing a training program. The different treatment conditions are as follows:

1. Group: control
2. Group: treatment with newsletter
3. Group: treatment with newsletter, and voucher
4. Group: treatment with newsletter, voucher, and information prime

Group 1 functions as the control group and is not contacted at all.

Group 2 receives a newsletter that includes an invitation to a consultation to discuss potential training programs with the PES' job counselor and provides information about existing financial incentives to start a training program.

In addition, groups 3 and 4 receive a voucher (Figure 2) worth € 15.000,-, which can be redeemed to take part in training programs provided by the PES. Alternatively, the voucher can be redeemed in consultation with the PES for any outside training for up to € 3.000,-. The groups receiving the voucher further obtain a list of typical training programs as part of the newsletter. This should motivate the unemployed in these two groups to already think about their preferred training program before the consultation at the PES. Finally, job counselors are instructed to take serious the voucher received by unemployed. The treatment is designed to increase self-initiative for the unemployed and raise awareness for the financial value of such training programs, thus inducing reciprocity.

Finally, group 4 receives in addition to the voucher an information treatment consisting of a list of occupations with the highest number of job vacancies. This information treatment is intended to counteract a frequently mentioned concern related to asymmetric information in the use of training vouchers: unemployed allegedly do not have enough information to make an informed choice about their optimal training program (Strittmatter, 2016). It will additionally increase (perceived) autonomy as it encourages even more to think about potential course choices before the consultation at the PES.

In general, all groups (including the control group) have access to the same training programs, both provided by the PES as well as outside training. The intervention, thus, consists of the variation in the type of information provided. Additionally, it varies the actual and perceived autonomy that the unemployed have in choosing their courses.
Intervention Start Date
2021-02-10
Intervention End Date
2021-03-10

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our three primary outcomes are training completion, labor market status, and job quality.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The first one refers to whether or not a course/training program is completed. The second one differentiates between: unemployed, employed, out-of-labor force. We can, thus, differentiate between people exiting unemployment because they found a job and those exiting unemployment, because they dropped out of the labor force. This differentiation is important for drawing conclusions from the findings. Finally, job quality is important, which we proxy by combining earnings and employment stability into an indicator. Employment stability is defined via the duration of the employment spell after unemployment, independent of the specific job. This means, job-to-job transitions still count as employment, but job-to-unemployment transitions do not. We first normalize both variables and then combine them with equal weight to construct the job quality indicator. However, job quality is only observed for those who actually found a job. Therefore, we provide estimates for effects on job quality conditional on finding a job, but also for effects on the probability of having an above-average job quality indicator. The latter can account for this inherent endogeneity (Rothstein and Von Wachter, 2017).

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Newsletter read + Clicks;
Training take-up;
Type of training
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
The following secondary outcomes are not per se desired outcomes, but can be seen as mechanisms leading to the primary outcomes described above. In this context we will look at whether or not the email was read, newsletter clicks, and course take-up. We will differentiate by the type of course to check whether the intervention also changes training choices.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experimental design is based on a stratified randomized assignment to four different treatment and control goups. The randomization is conducted for each of three waves separately, thus practically stratifying by the three categories of unemployment duration dividing the three waves. In addition, we use the other stratification variables as specified in table 1 to construct strata, i.e. blocks. The treatment assignment is in a next step conducted randomly within these strata.

First analyses of short-term treatment effects are intended to be carried out with outcome data provided by the PES in several rounds in 2021. Longer-term effects are intended to be estimated with data provided by the PES each year until 2026. This will allow us to estimate long-term effects up to at least 5 years after the intervention.

Please refer to the pre-analysis plan for further details.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
stratified randomization
Randomization Unit
individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
-
Sample size: planned number of observations
12,000 unemployed
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
25% of unemployed in the sample per each of 4 treatment and control arms
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Reframing active labor market policy: Experimental evidence of training vouchers for unemployed

MD5: acd8bee2ed3602944dc5fc2d31544ce5

SHA1: b73b66c4497a5b3193cef6c92617422d524b35f1

Uploaded At: February 15, 2021