In the first episode of J-PAL Voices: The Impact and Promise of Summer Jobs in the United States, we introduce you to some of the people you will meet throughout the series: Researchers like Judd Kessler and Sara Heller, who use rigorous randomized evaluations, or randomized controlled trials, to measure the impact of summer jobs programs on crime, incarceration, and employment. Participants like Habiba Khan and Erica Chen, who went through Common Point Queens’ Ladders for Leaders program. Program Directors like Angela Rudolph and Julia Breitman, who oversee summer jobs activities in Chicago and New York City. Over the rest of the season, we explore how summer jobs programs might help foster upward mobility, by diving deep into these programs through the lens of the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty’s five strategies.

We would love to hear your comments and feedback at podcasts@povertyactionlab.org. J-PAL Voices is brought to you by J-PAL North America (https://www.povertyactionlab.org/na). Stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/JPAL.NorthAmerica/) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/JPAL_NA).

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Links:

·         Stopping a Bullet with a Summer Job (pdf), a J-PAL Policy Briefcase summarizing research by Judd Kessler and Sara Heller amongst others

·         Chicago Magazine coverage (webpage) of the research in Chicago

·         Additional summaries of the research by Judd Kessler (webpage) and Sara Heller (webpage)

·         The Effects of Youth Employment: Evidence from New York City Lotteries (pdf) by Alexander Gelber, Adam Isen, and Judd Kessler

·         Summer Jobs Reduce Violence Among Disadvantaged Youth (webpage) by Sara Heller

·         The US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty (webpage)

·         Chicago’s One Summer Chicago program page (webpage)

·         Common Point Queens’ Summer Youth Employment Program page (webpage)

·         New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (webpage)