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Determinants of youth not in education, employment or training: Evidence from Sri Lanka
Author(s) -
Abayasekara Ashani,
Gunasekara Neluka
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
review of development economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1467-9361
pISSN - 1363-6669
DOI - 10.1111/rode.12615
Subject(s) - sri lanka , multinomial logistic regression , demographic economics , economics , ethnic group , training (meteorology) , survey data collection , logistic regression , socioeconomics , geography , political science , medicine , statistics , mathematics , machine learning , meteorology , computer science , law , tanzania
Abstract The presence of a large proportion of youth neither in education, employment, or training (NEET) signals problems in a country’s education and labor market systems, and has wide‐ranging negative consequences, extending beyond the individual to the economy and society. Using Sri Lankan Labour Force Survey data for the year 2016 and binomial and multinomial logistic regression models, in this paper we provide the first estimates of NEET‐related risk factors in Sri Lanka. Key risk factors of becoming NEET include being female, being of ethnic and religious minorities, belonging to the older 20 to 24 age group, having very low or very high levels of education, being illiterate in English, belonging to a low‐income household or one headed by a male, having young children, and living in more remote areas. Our findings hold several important policy implications for reducing the NEET rate in Sri Lanka and engaging more youth in education and in the labor force.