An evaluation of the youth employment support program in South Korea: Focusing on the outcome of preventing NEET

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the Vision Plan Program, a youth employment support program in South Korea. In this study, we used the survey data collected on program participants and non-participants in 11 communities over a three-year period (2016 to 2018). We used the difference-in-difference method to examine the effectiveness of the program while controlling for both observed and unobserved characteristics of the treatment and comparison groups. We focused on the two primary outcomes of the program: (1) intention to find a job and (2) probability of being not in employment, education, or training (NEET). The analysis results show that the intention of the program participants to find a job increased to 8.3% compared to that of non-participants during the three-year program period. We also found the positive effect of the program on reducing the risk of NEET. The probability of being NEET of the program participants decreased to 6.6% more compared to non-participants during the three-year period. We provide discussion of the possible policy implications and limitations of this study.