Rethinking the Benefits of Youth Employment Programs: The Heterogeneous Effects of Summer Jobs
通过两个随机实验，发现暑期工作项目能持续减少暴力犯罪逮捕，但对就业、学业无改善，甚至增加财产犯罪；利用机器学习揭示不同青年群体的异质性效果。
Abstract This paper reports the results of two randomized field experiments, each offering different populations of Chicago youth a supported summer job. The program consistently reduces violent-crime arrests, even after the summer, without improving employment, schooling, or other arrests; if anything, property crime increases over two to three years. Using a new machine learning method, we uncover heterogeneity in employment impacts that standard methods would miss, describe who benefits, and leverage the heterogeneity to explore mechanisms. We conclude that brief youth employment programs can generate important behavioral change, but for different outcomes, youth, and reasons than those most often considered in the literature.