Reframing Active Labor Market Policy: A Field Experiment on Barriers to Program Participation

Governments often struggle to attract unemployed workers to widely available job training programs. In a randomized field experiment with 11,000 job seekers, we examine barriers to participation using information interventions designed to encourage enrollment. Providing information about training opportunities increased program enrollment and completion
by approximately 20%. Signaling program cost through a voucher similarly boosted enrollment and raised completion by 27%. Effects were sizeable and concentrated among women, low-income job seekers, and those counseled by low-productivity caseworkers. Treated job seekers were more likely to enroll in longer and examined programs. While we find no overall employment effects, the treatments markedly improved employment for those who completed training. These findings highlight the potential of low-cost information interventions to boost participation and emphasize the importance of effectively matching job seekers to high-quality training programs.