Family Effects in Youth Employment

Abstract

The authors begin with the hypothesis that parental contacts play a major role in finding jobs for youth. This hypothesis is tested with a model of youth employment that includes characteristics of other family members in addition to a large set of control variables. Particular attention is paid to parental characteristics that might indicate a parent's ability to assist the youth in finding a job, including occupation, industry and education. The effects of such variables are generally not significant and do not support the initial hypothesis. However, the employment probability of a youth is significantly affected by the presence of employed siblings, indicating the presence of some intrafamily effects.