research on National Job Corps

Excellent research (from 2008) on the "National Job Corps" job training program for young, disadvantaged folks. Hopefully, the program is as good or has gotten better. Tonia is going to follow-up, hoping to connecting her work with Hope to the local NJC folks.

Good news:

-relatively effective for a govt program like this, including wealth transfer and higher incomes in the short-run

-relatively (only) effective for the older folks in the 16-24 age range

-the residential piece was probably part of the success, with its greater ability to do "categorization, discernment" (a la Olasky) and accountability

Bad news:

-really expensive ($25K per)

-modest effectiveness-- and of that, limited to the older folks and only short-run impact on wages/income

-the only govt job training program that's been shown to have any effectiveness

Missing research question of interest (I'll email the researchers and see if they had/have anything): Were smaller centers more effective than larger centers?