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Isaac Mbiti

Isaac Mbiti
Date: 
Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 3:30pm to 5:00pm
Location: 
CERAS 101 - Stanford University

Isaac Mbiti
Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics, University of Virginia

The Apprenticeship-to-Work Transition: Experimental Evidence from Ghana
Authors: Morgan Hardy, Isaac Mbiti, Jamie McCasland, Isabelle Salcher

This paper examines the effects of a government-sponsored apprenticeship training program designed to address high levels of youth unemployment in Ghana. We exploit the randomized access to the program to examine the short-run effects of apprenticeship training on labor market outcomes. Our results show that apprenticeships shift youth out of wage work and into self-employment. However, the loss of wage income is not offset by increases in self-employment profits in the short run. In addition, the paper uses the randomized match between apprentices and training providers to examine the causal effect of characteristics of trainers on outcomes for apprentices. Participants who trained with the most experienced trainers or the most profitable ones had higher earnings. This suggests that training programs can be made more effective through better recruitment of trainers.