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Evaluating continuous training programmes by using the generalized propensity score
Author(s) -
Kluve Jochen,
Schneider Hilmar,
Uhlendorff Arne,
Zhao Zhong
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of the royal statistical society: series a (statistics in society)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.103
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-985X
pISSN - 0964-1998
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-985x.2011.01000.x
Subject(s) - covariate , propensity score matching , average treatment effect , statistics , training (meteorology) , econometrics , mathematics , feature (linguistics) , treatment effect , function (biology) , medicine , duration (music) , geography , meteorology , art , linguistics , philosophy , literature , evolutionary biology , biology , traditional medicine
Summary. The paper assesses the heterogeneity of treatment effects arising from variation in the duration of training. We use German administrative data that have the extraordinary feature that the amount of treatment varies continuously from 10 days to 395 days (i.e. 13 months). This feature allows us to estimate a continuous dose–response function that relates each value of the dose, i.e. days of training, to the individual post‐treatment probability of employment (the response). The dose–response function is estimated after adjusting for covariate imbalance by using the generalized propensity score, which is a recently developed method for covariate adjustment under continuous treatment regimes. Our data have the advantage that we can consider both the actual and the planned durations of training as treatment variables: if only actual durations are observed, treatment effect estimates may be biased because of endogenous exits. Our results indicate an increasing dose–response function for treatments of up to 120 days, which then flattens out, i.e. longer training programmes do not seem to add an additional treatment effect.