Impacts of Industrial and Entrepreneurial Jobs on Youth: 5-Year Evidence on Factory Job Offers and Cash Grants in Ethiopia

Research Note
Published on 12 September 2019

Abstract

In Ethiopia, Blattman, Dercon and Franklin (2019) randomly assign mostly female jobseekers to receive an industrial job offer or an unconditional cash transfer, meant to spur self-employment. In the first year they found positive impacts of the cash transfers on occupational choice, income and health. However, these effects largely dissipated after five years, suggesting one-time interventions may be insufficient for overcoming barriers to wage- or self-employment.

Authors

Christopher Blattman

Columbia University

Stefan Dercon

University of Oxford

Simon Franklin

Queen Mary University of London