Unbundling the Degree Effect in a Job Training Program for Disadvantaged Youth

Government-sponsored education and training programs have the goal to enhance participants' skills so as to become more employable, productive and dependable citizens and thus alleviate poverty and decrease public dependence. While most of the literature evaluating training programs concentrates on estimating their total average treatment effect, these programs offer a variety of services to participants. Estimating the effect of these components is of importance for the design and the evaluation of labor market programs. In this paper, we employ a recent nonparametric approach to estimate bounds on the "mechanism average treatment effect" to evaluate the causal effect of attaining a high school diploma, General Education Development or vocational certificate within a training program for disadvantaged youth 16-24 (Job Corps) relative to other services pffered, on two labor outcomes: employment probability and weekly earnings. We provide these estimates for different demographic groups by race, ethnicity, gender, and two age-risk groups (youth and young adults). Our analysis depicts a positive impact of a degree attainment within the training program on employment probability and weekly earnings for the majority of its participants which in general accounts for 55 - 63 percent of the effect of the program. The heterogeneity of the key demographic subgroups is documented in the relative importance of a degree attainment and of the other services provided in Job Corps.Causal Inference, Treatment Effects, Mechanism Average Effects, Nonparametric Bounds, Potential Outcomes, Principal Stratification, Training Programs, Job Corps, Active Labor Market Policies, Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, C14, I20, J01,

Red Stick Farms: Planning for the Future

This case explores the relation between decision making, strategic management, and risk management in a newly established farm operation. Red Stick Farm is a family-operated, small-scale, urban farm that uses intensive growing techniques to produce vegetables, microgreens, and edible flowers in the greater Baton Rouge area. The operation has been in production for three years, and the two operators are examining two mutually exclusive strategies to grow their farm. The first strategy allows them to expand their customer base by offering a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program; the second strategy allows them to increase production capacity by acquiring more land. The case challenges students to assess the current situation of the farm and future direction following strategic business planning practices. The study highlights the importance of defining and developing an operation’s mission statement, exploring growth strategies, assessing the internal strengths of the operation and external threats to the operation, and identifying respective risks. In addition, the examples illustrated through this case study will assist new and beginning farmers who are interested in urban farming practices as they monitor, identify, and manage risk on their farms

Trends in U.S. Farm Labor and H-2A Hired Labor: Policy and Related Issues

This article reviews trends in U.S farm labor and wages as well as the H-2A program. It highlights the changing worker profile in U.S. agriculture. The decreasing number of farm workers and associated increased wage rates, could adversely affect the economic wellbeing of several labor-intensive agricultural industries

Designing agricultural economics and agribusiness undergraduate programs

© 2018 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence. Agricultural economics and agribusiness (AEAB) programs offer their graduates unique exposure to agricultural markets, policy, and production systems, which differentiates them from business programs. Despite the advantages associated with AEAB degrees, a significant challenge universities and AEAB graduates face is a general lack of recognition of what agricultural economics is and what an agricultural economist does. Using data collected from U.S. 1862 and 1890 land grant universities, we stress the importance of designing effective AEAB curricula based on enrollment trends, the desired attributes of graduates, and the current structure of AEAB undergraduate programs