Can Public Works Programs Reduce Youth Crime? : Evidence from Papua New Guinea's Urban Youth Employment Project

Ivaschenko, Oleksiy ; Naidoo, Darian ; Newhouse, David ; Sultan, Sonya

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: YOUTH EMPLOYMENT;    PUBLIC WORK PROGRAMS;    YOUTH CRIME;    JOB TRAINING;    PUBLIC WORKS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8032
RP-ID  :  WPS8032

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Crime rates in Papua New Guinea'scapital city of Port Moresby are among the highest in theworld. Few youth work, and good jobs are scarce. In 2013,the National Capital District Commission partnered with theWorld Bank to implement the Urban Youth Employment Project.The project offers out-of-school and out-of-work youth twomonths of public works employment or, for academicallyqualified candidates, six months of classroom and on-the-jobtraining. This paper presents difference-in-differenceestimates of project impacts on participants' socialand criminal behavior, 12 to 18 months after completion. Thecontrol group consists of observably similar youth living inareas not served by the program. Project participants becameless likely to hang out with friends at night, have a bestfriend involved in crime, and have friends involved infights or robberies. The program also increased subsequentemployment rates, and significantly reduced aggressivebehavior and gratuitous property damage. However, there islittle robust evidence that the program reducedparticipants' engagement in or exposure to crime.Thestudy concludes that the program had strong and healthyeffects on participants' peer group and behavior, butmore limited effects on the socioeconomic causes of crime.