Contemporaneous and Post-Program Impacts of a Public Works Program : Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire
Public works are one of the most popular safety net and employment policy instruments in thedeveloping world, despite limited evidence on their effectiveness and optimal design features.This paper presents results on contemporaneous and post-progra...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/361281506439891614/Contemporaneous-and-post-program-impacts-of-a-public-works-program-evidence-from-Côte-dIvoire http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28460 |
| id |
okr-10986-28460 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
oai_dc |
| spelling |
okr-10986-284602021-05-25T09:56:14Z Contemporaneous and Post-Program Impacts of a Public Works Program : Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire Bertrand, Marianne Crépon, Bruno Marguerie, Alicia Premand, Patrick PUBLIC WORKS SAFETY NET EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM JOBS ENTREPRENEURSHIP Public works are one of the most popular safety net and employment policy instruments in thedeveloping world, despite limited evidence on their effectiveness and optimal design features.This paper presents results on contemporaneous and post-program impacts from a public worksintervention in Côte d'Ivoire. The program provided 7 months of temporary employment inroad maintenance to urban youths. Participants self-selected to apply for the public works jobs,which paid the formal minimum wage and were randomized among applicants. Randomizedsub-sets of beneficiaries also received complementary training on basic entrepreneurship or jobsearch skills. During the program, results show limited contemporaneous impacts of publicworks on the level of employment, but a shift in the composition of employment towards thebetter-paid public works wage jobs. A year after the end of the program, there are no lastingimpacts on the level or composition of employment, although positive impacts are observed onearnings through higher productivity in non-agricultural self-employment. Large heterogeneityin impacts are found, particularly during the program. Results from machine learningtechniques suggest potential trade-offs between maximizing contemporaneous and postprogramimpacts. Traditional heterogeneity analysis shows that a range of practical targetingmechanisms perform as well as the machine learning benchmark, leading to strongercontemporaneous and post-program benefits without sharp trade-offs. Overall, departing fromself-targeting based on the formal minimum wage would lead to strong improvements inprogram cost-effectiveness. 2017-10-05T19:12:55Z 2017-10-05T19:12:55Z 2017-05-23 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/361281506439891614/Contemporaneous-and-post-program-impacts-of-a-public-works-program-evidence-from-Côte-dIvoire http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28460 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper Africa Cote d'Ivoire |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
PUBLIC WORKS SAFETY NET EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM JOBS ENTREPRENEURSHIP |
| spellingShingle |
PUBLIC WORKS SAFETY NET EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM JOBS ENTREPRENEURSHIP Bertrand, Marianne Crépon, Bruno Marguerie, Alicia Premand, Patrick Contemporaneous and Post-Program Impacts of a Public Works Program : Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Cote d'Ivoire |
| description |
Public works are one of the most popular
safety net and employment policy instruments in
thedeveloping world, despite limited evidence on their
effectiveness and optimal design features.This paper
presents results on contemporaneous and post-program impacts
from a public worksintervention in Côte d'Ivoire. The
program provided 7 months of temporary employment inroad
maintenance to urban youths. Participants self-selected to
apply for the public works jobs,which paid the formal
minimum wage and were randomized among applicants.
Randomizedsub-sets of beneficiaries also received
complementary training on basic entrepreneurship or
jobsearch skills. During the program, results show limited
contemporaneous impacts of publicworks on the level of
employment, but a shift in the composition of employment
towards thebetter-paid public works wage jobs. A year after
the end of the program, there are no lastingimpacts on the
level or composition of employment, although positive
impacts are observed onearnings through higher productivity
in non-agricultural self-employment. Large heterogeneityin
impacts are found, particularly during the program. Results
from machine learningtechniques suggest potential trade-offs
between maximizing contemporaneous and postprogramimpacts.
Traditional heterogeneity analysis shows that a range of
practical targetingmechanisms perform as well as the machine
learning benchmark, leading to strongercontemporaneous and
post-program benefits without sharp trade-offs. Overall,
departing fromself-targeting based on the formal minimum
wage would lead to strong improvements inprogram cost-effectiveness. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Bertrand, Marianne Crépon, Bruno Marguerie, Alicia Premand, Patrick |
| author_facet |
Bertrand, Marianne Crépon, Bruno Marguerie, Alicia Premand, Patrick |
| author_sort |
Bertrand, Marianne |
| title |
Contemporaneous and Post-Program Impacts of a Public Works Program : Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire |
| title_short |
Contemporaneous and Post-Program Impacts of a Public Works Program : Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire |
| title_full |
Contemporaneous and Post-Program Impacts of a Public Works Program : Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire |
| title_fullStr |
Contemporaneous and Post-Program Impacts of a Public Works Program : Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Contemporaneous and Post-Program Impacts of a Public Works Program : Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire |
| title_sort |
contemporaneous and post-program impacts of a public works program : evidence from côte d'ivoire |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/361281506439891614/Contemporaneous-and-post-program-impacts-of-a-public-works-program-evidence-from-Côte-dIvoire http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28460 |
| _version_ |
1764466969008930816 |