TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ham,John C.
AU  - LaLonde,Robert J.
TI  - Estimating the Effect of Training on Employment and Unemployment Durations: Evidence From Experimental Data
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3912
PY  - 1991
Y2  - November 1991
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3912
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3912.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John Ham
University of Maryland
Department of Economics
3105 Tydings Hall
College Park, MD 20742
Tel: 818-439-3531
E-Mail: ham@econ.umd.edu

Robert J. LaLonde
University of Chicago
Harris Graduate School of Public Policy
1155 E. 60th Street, #145
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/834-3440
Fax: 773/702-0926
E-Mail: r-lalonde@uchicago.edu
AB  - Using data from a social experiment, we estimate the impact of training on the duration of employment and unemployment spells for AFDC recipients. Although an experimental design eliminates the need to construct a comparison group for this analysis, simple comparisons between the average durations or the transition rates of treatments' and controls' employment and unemployment spells lead to biased estimates of the effects of training. We present and implement several econometric approaches that demonstrate the importance of and correct for these biases. For the training program studied in the paper, we find that it raised employment rates because employment durations increased. In contrast, training did not lead to shorter unemployment spells.
ER  -