Methodological Issues in the Evaluation of CETA Programs Endogenous Participation, Completion, and Program Assignment

"This Note examines selected methodological issues for the evaluation of training programs similar to the one established by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. It addresses two aspects of the training programs that are treated only casually in the literature. First, in addition to the worker's endogenous participation and program-completion decisions, the authors' analysis includes the program sponsor's endogenous decisions concerning the type of training received by the trainee (i.e., assignment to a program type) and the placement of the trainee in a job at the end of the training period. Second, the authors analyze various components of earnings (in terms of wage rates, hours per week, and weeks worked), as well as individual differences in the long-run level and growth of these components, and transitory variations."--Rand abstracts