Income Security Policy Paper No. 2
Reality or Illusion: The
Importance of Creaming on
Job Replacement Rates in
Job Training Partnership Act Programs
Kathryn H. Anderson, Richard V. Burkhauser, and Jennie E. Raymond
March 1992
Abstract: Critics of the Job Partnership Training Act of
1982 (JTPA) argue that most of its job
placement success has been the result of the
"creaming" of participants--that is,
of serving individuals who are most employable
at the expense of those most in need. Using a
bivariate probit model of JTPA trainee
selection and job placement success, this
paper analyzes the selection of JTPA past
recipients. It provides a first approximation
of the importance of non-random selection on
job placement rates. Creaming is found to take
place within service delivery areas (SDAs),
especially with respect to the avoidance of
eligible high school dropouts, but private
industry councils do not simply maximize their
job placement rates. The authors estimate
that, in the absence of creaming, placement
rates in Tennessee would fall by 18 percent.
But the major change would come in increased
enrollment in urban areas, not in the
socio-economic characteristic of enrollees
within SDAs.
A revised version of this paper
appears as "The Effect of Creaming on
Placement Rates Under the Job Training
Partnership Act," Industrial and
Labor Relations Review, 46(4)(July
1993): 613-624. Those interested in this work
should see that journal.
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