Brown Bag Florencia Olivares Gonzalez: The Impact of Digital Skills Training on Unemployed Women: A Field Experiment in Catalonia

Time: Wednesday 4th of December, 11.00-12.00
Place: Publicum, first floor KH149 and on-line in Zoom: https://utu.zoom.us/my/bahamondeh

Presenter: Florencia Gallego (University Pompeu Fabra)
Authors: Aina Gallego (University of Barcelona) and Florencia Olivares (University Pompeu Fabra)

The technological revolution of recent decades, characterized by increasing digitalization, automation and the development of AI, has significantly changed labor markets and created a growing demand for new skills. In this context, digital literacy has become a basic requirement for most jobs. In Europe, for example, 85% of jobs now require at least basic skills. In response, the dominant policy strategy has been to promote the acquisition of digital skills through active labor market policies (ALMPs). Several of these initiatives have specifically targeted women, recognizing the existence of a digital gender gap, largely due to educational and occupational biases that double the barriers to upskilling. While these policies have gained popularity in Europe, their effectiveness remains largely under-researched.

Beyond the labor market, digital skills training policies are seen as critical to promoting the social and political inclusion of citizens. On the social front, a lack of basic digital skills increases the risk of social exclusion, affecting not only individuals’ economic prospects but also their subjective well-being; on the political front, gaps in the tools to keep up with technological change shape workers’ political attitudes in ways that could undermine democratic norms. As a result, governments have increasingly turned to social investment initiatives that aim to both promote social cohesion and prevent political disengagement and cynicism.

In light of these academic and practitioner discussions, this project takes an experimental approach to test several hypotheses on the intended and unintended consequences of the program in the economic, subjective and political domains. The study will focus on a current program funded by the European Next Generation Fund called “Reprograma’t amb l’ADA”, an ALMP run by the Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC) that trains unemployed women in digital skills. Through an encouragement design, participants in the treatment group will receive an economic incentive (€100) to complete at least 40 hours of digital skills training (equivalent to one course of the program). This approach will allow us to analyze the dynamics of self-selection into digital training and assess its potential impact on labor market outcomes, personal well-being, and political attitudes.