IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp5431.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Effects of Adult Education Vouchers on the Labor Market: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Schwerdt, Guido

    (University of Konstanz)

  • Messer, Dolores

    (University of Bern)

  • Woessmann, Ludger

    (University of Munich)

  • Wolter, Stefan C.

    (University of Bern)

Abstract

Lifelong learning is often promoted in ageing societies, but little is known about its returns or governments' ability to advance it. This paper evaluates the effects of a large-scale randomized field experiment issuing vouchers for adult education in Switzerland. We find no significant average effects of voucher-induced adult education on earnings, employment, and subsequent education one year after treatment. But effects are heterogeneous: Low- education individuals are most likely to profit from adult education, but least likely to use the voucher. The findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of existing untargeted voucher programs in promoting labor market outcomes through adult education.

Suggested Citation

  • Schwerdt, Guido & Messer, Dolores & Woessmann, Ludger & Wolter, Stefan C., 2011. "Effects of Adult Education Vouchers on the Labor Market: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 5431, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5431
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp5431.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anders Stenberg & Xavier Luna & Olle Westerlund, 2012. "Can adult education delay retirement from the labour market?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 677-696, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ruud Gerards & Andries de Grip & Maaike Witlox, 2014. "'Employability-miles' and worker employability awareness," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(9), pages 952-965, March.
    2. Gray, David & Morin, Louis-Philippe, 2013. "An analysis of a foundational learning program in BC: the Foundations Workplace Skills Program (FWSP) at Douglas College," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2013-41, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 26 Sep 2013.
    3. Andries De Grip & Jan Sauermann, 2012. "The Effects of Training on Own and Co‐worker Productivity: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(560), pages 376-399, May.
    4. Corinna Ghirelli & Enkelejda Havari & Giulia Santangelo & Marta Scettri, 2019. "Does on-the-job training help graduates find a job? Evidence from an Italian region," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(3), pages 500-524, February.
    5. Osiander, Christopher, 2012. "Determinanten der Weiterbildungsbereitschaft gering qualifizierter Arbeitsloser," IAB-Discussion Paper 201229, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    6. Allen, J.P. & van der Velden, R.K.W., 2012. "Skills for the 21st century: implications for education," Research Memorandum 043, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    7. Arni, Patrick, 2012. "Kausale Evaluation von Pilotprojekten: Die Nutzung von Randomisierung in der Praxis," IZA Standpunkte 52, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. David S. Kaplan & Rafael Novella & Graciana Rucci & Claudia Vazquez, 2015. "Training Vouchers and Labor Market Outcomes in Chile," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 88674, Inter-American Development Bank.
    9. Murrugarra, Edmundo, 2011. "Employability and productivity among older workers : apolicy framework and evidence from Latin America," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 63230, The World Bank.
    10. EFI - Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (ed.), 2012. "Research, innovation and technological performance in Germany - EFI Report 2012," Reports on Research, Innovation and Technological Performance in Germany, Expertenkommission Forschung und Innovation (EFI) - Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation, Berlin, volume 127, number 2012e, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erika Sandow & Olle Westerlund & Urban Lindgren, 2014. "Is Your Commute Killing You? On the Mortality Risks of Long-Distance Commuting," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(6), pages 1496-1516, June.
    2. Stenberg, Anders & Westerlund, Olle, 2016. "Flexibility at a cost – Should governments stimulate tertiary education for adults?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 69-86.
    3. Schwerdt, Guido & Messer, Dolores & Woessmann, Ludger & Wolter, Stefan C., 2012. "The impact of an adult education voucher program: Evidence from a randomized field experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(7-8), pages 569-583.
    4. Jens Ruhose & Stephan L. Thomsen & Insa Weilage, 2018. "The Wider Benefits of Adult Learning: Work-Related Training and Social Capital," CESifo Working Paper Series 7268, CESifo.
    5. Stefan Denzler & Jens Ruhose & Stefan C. Wolter, 2022. ""The Double Dividend of Training" - Labor Market Effects of Work-Related Continuous Education in Switzerland," CESifo Working Paper Series 10009, CESifo.
    6. Anders Stenberg & Olle Westerlund, 2013. "Education and retirement: does University education at mid-age extend working life?," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-22, December.
    7. Mona Larsen & Peder Pedersen, 2013. "To work, to retire – or both? Labor market activity after 60," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Eyjólfsdóttir, H.S. & Baumann, I. & Agahi, N. & Fritzell, J. & Lennartsson, C., 2019. "Prolongation of working life and its effect on mortality and health in older adults: Propensity score matching," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 77-86.
    9. Jens Ruhose & Stephan L. Thomsen & Insa Weilage, 2018. "The Wider Benefits of Adult Learning: Work-Related Training and Social Capital," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1004, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    10. Pierre-Jean Messe & Nathalie Greenan, 2023. "Knowledge transmission in the second part of careers: does formal training matter?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(7), pages 1415-1436, April.
    11. Anna Ruzik-Sierdzinska & Claudia Villosio & Michele Belloni & Maciej Lis & Monika Potoczna, 2013. "Age and productivity. Human Capital Accumulation and Depreciation," CASE Network Reports 0114, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
    12. Frimmel, Wolfgang, 2021. "Later retirement and the labor market re-integration of elderly unemployed workers," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    13. Montizaan, R.M. & de Grip, A. & Fouarge, D., 2015. "Training access, reciprocity, and expected retirement age," Research Memorandum 005, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    14. Peter Bäckström & Erika Sandow & Olle Westerlund, 2016. "Commuting and timing of retirement," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 56(1), pages 125-152, January.
    15. Anders Stenberg & Xavier Luna & Olle Westerlund, 2014. "Does Formal Education for Older Workers Increase Earnings? — Evidence Based on Rich Data and Long-term Follow-up," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 28(2), pages 163-189, June.
    16. Linda Kridahl, 2017. "Retirement timing and grandparenthood: A population-based study on Sweden," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(31), pages 957-994.
    17. Ann Barbara Bauer & Reiner Eichenberger, 2017. "Endogenous aging: How statutory retirement age drives human and social capital," CREMA Working Paper Series 2017-02, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    18. N. Barban & X. de Luna & E. Lundholm & I. Svensson & F. C. Billari, 2020. "Causal Effects of the Timing of Life-course Events: Age at Retirement and Subsequent Health," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 49(1), pages 216-249, February.
    19. Schulte-Braucks, Philipp, 2013. "Von Schweden lernen: Weiterbildung gering Qualifizierter im Rahmen der kommunalen Erwachsenenbildung (Komvux)," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Skill Formation and Labor Markets SP I 2013-502, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    20. Hend Gabr & Fiona Carmichael & Hui Li, 2019. "A Multilevel Simultaneous Equations Modelling Approach to Investigate the Relationship between Poverty and Labour-Force Participation among the Elderly in Egypt," International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 22(1), pages 01-12, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    LATE; adult education; voucher; field experiment; Switzerland;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • M53 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Training

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5431. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.