“Youth Participation in the Labour Market in Germany, Spain and Sweden”

The aim of this paper is evaluating the impact of training on the employability of young long-term unemployed (18-24) within the EU. The analysis focuses on three countries representing different educational and training systems: Spain and Sweden are examples of a rigid and of a flexible sequential system, respectively; Germany is the best example of a dual educational and training system. Following a new wave in the literature on evaluation of employment policy, the paper attempts a target-oriented approach, as opposed to a programme-oriented approach. The effect of training on the labour market participation of young people is estimated by a multinomial LOGIT model relative to five labour market statuses: unemployment, employment, training, education and inactivity. The impact of the policy is analysed controlling for other important individual determinants, such as human and social capital endowment, the reservation wage and unemployment duration. The estimates provide little evidence in favour of a positive impact of ALMP in Spain and Germany. Only in Sweden the probability to be employed is significantly dependent on participation on training programmes. This result could be also due to the poor targeting of the policy to the weakest groups, especially in Southern European countries. It raises the issue of whether ALMP is a good instrument to fight youth unemployment and suggests a reform of the general education system could be more “effective”.