Reproducibility package for Gender And Goals Matter For Youth Employment: Returns To Socio-Emotional Skills Training In Tanzania

This paper evaluates a socio-emotional skills (SES) training programme for 4,728 urban Tanzanian youth who were not in full time employment, education, or training (NEET). A randomized design compared awareness (e.g., self-awareness, empathy, active listening), management (e.g., self-control, personal initiative, negotiation), and combined curricula. SES were measured using self-reported and behavioral indicators. Training increased self-reported SES in the short run across both domains, but had limited effects on behavioral measures, and all SES gains faded after one year. Modest but sustained employment gains were observed among men who were job seekers at baseline. Training did not improve labour market outcomes for women. We find no differential effects across training types, and each training affected skills in the alternative domain, suggesting that SES domains are interrelated.
These findings indicate that SES training may improve labor market outcomes only for specific subgroups, particularly in the absence of complementary interventions tackling barriers to employment.