Make IT Work: The Labor Market Effects of Information Technology Retraining in the Netherlands

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effects of an active labor market program (ALMP) for higher educated workers in the Netherlands. The one-year program is characterized by six months of full-time IT retraining followed by a six-month internship. We estimate the effects of participating on earnings per month and working days per month. The results show significant lock-in effects during the program, lasting up to five months after program start. After this lock-in period, we find significant positive effects on earnings and working days. These positive effects remain significant until th... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Vooren, Melvin
Haelermans, Carla
Groot, Wim
Maassen van den Brink, Henriette
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
Reihe/Periodikum: Vooren , M , Haelermans , C , Groot , W & Maassen van den Brink , H 2022 , ' Make IT Work: The Labor Market Effects of Information Technology Retraining in the Netherlands ' , De Economist , vol. 170 , no. 3 , pp. 323-342 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10645-022-09408-6
Schlagwörter: Active labor market policy / Information technology / Internal rate of return / Labor market out- comes / Retraining / /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/decent_work_and_economic_growth / name=SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26844150
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/6c37196b-5812-4b51-b780-1c68a90463d6

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effects of an active labor market program (ALMP) for higher educated workers in the Netherlands. The one-year program is characterized by six months of full-time IT retraining followed by a six-month internship. We estimate the effects of participating on earnings per month and working days per month. The results show significant lock-in effects during the program, lasting up to five months after program start. After this lock-in period, we find significant positive effects on earnings and working days. These positive effects remain significant until the end of the 36-month evaluation period. A conservative cost–benefit analysis based on the effects on earnings shows a return of 2.53% (95% CI 2.02–3.04%), which is low compared to the returns to education in the Netherlands of around 8%. We conclude that IT retraining has positive effects on the labor market outcomes of the participants yet relatively low returns.