The Women of the National Supported Work Demonstration

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Calonico, Sebastian; Smith, Jeffrey
• 署名单位: University of Miami; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; National Bureau of Economic Research; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/692397
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: S65-S97
• 关键词: training-programs; selection bias; earnings; IMPACT

摘要

This paper re-creates three of the samples from LaLonde's famous 1986 paper that began the literature on within-study designs that uses experiments as benchmarks against which to assess the performance of nonexperimental identification strategies. In particular, we recreate the experimental data for the target group of women on welfare from the National Supported Work (NSW) Demonstration and two of the corresponding comparison groups drawn from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The loss of these data resulted in the (sizable) subsequent literature devoting its attention solely to the NSW men. In addition to repeating LaLonde's analyses on our recreations of his files for the AFDC women, we apply (many of) the estimators from later papers by Dehejia and Wahba and by Smith and Todd to these data. Our findings support the general view in the literature that women on welfare pose a less difficult selection problem when evaluating employment and training programs. They also call into question the generalizability of some of the broad conclusions that Dehejia and Wahba and Smith and Todd draw from their analyses of the NSW men.