What Works for Whom? Youth Labour Market Policy in Poland

Abstract

We compare the relative effectiveness of selected active labour market policies (ALMPs) available to young unemployed people in Poland in 2015 and 2016. We find sizeable negative employment effects of participating in public works programmes, particularly among disadvantaged individuals. The second-least effective ALMP was standard on-the-job training, even though it was the most popular among young unemployed people. We also show that on-the-job training vouchers (where the unemployed find the training provider) were more effective than standard on-the-job training schemes (where the public employment service finds the training provider) for all subgroups of participants. However, we find no support for the greater effectiveness of vouchers in the case of classroom training. Moreover, the most effective alternative for participants in public works programmes and on-the-job training depended on gender. Women would have benefited the most if they had been offered an on-the-job training voucher, while men would have benefited the most if they had participated in classroom training (standard or financed with a voucher). Finally, we find that the offer of public employment services does not match the needs of tertiary-educated women, who constitute a significant part of the young unemployed in Poland.

Keywords

• almp
• youth unemployment
• wage subsidies
• public works
• training vouchers