This paper reports the results of two randomized field experiments, each offering different populations of Chicago youth a supported summer job.
The program consistently reduced violent-crime arrests, even after the summer, without improving employment, schooling, or other arrests; if anything, property crime increased over 2 to 3 years. Using a new machine- learning method, the study revealed heterogeneity in employment impacts that standard methods would miss, described who benefitted, and leveraged the heterogeneity to explore mechanisms. The study concluded that brief youth employment programs can generate important behavioral change, but for different outcomes, youth, and reasons than those most often considered in the literature. (publisher abstract modified)