Human Capital and the Process of Integrating Young People into the Labor Market: The Case of the Township of Aboisso
Ibrahima Camara
Ecole Nationale Superieure de Statistique et D'Economie Appliquee - ENSEA, Abidjan, Cote D Ivoire

This study aims at determining the specific role of human capital (measured by education) in the process of integrating young people into the labor market of the township of Aboisso in Ivory Coast.

Youth unemployment is a major problem for national governments and international organizations around the world especially in Ivory Coast. In the current crisis facing this country, the socio-economic integration of young people should attract the attention of governors. Indeed, the unemployment rate of young people is still high especially in urban areas. According to the report of the Survey of Living Standards in 2008, the unemployment rate in urban areas was 34.1%, about five times that observed in rural areas (7%).

At the present time when investment in human capital becomes important in order to reduce youth unemployment, the contribution of human capital in the process of integrating young people is worthy of further analysis in large urban areas.

The results of this paper should be useful for policymakers to take appropriate actions to increase the employability and the low monthly incomes of youth.

The case of “Aboisso” is particularly interesting to explore also ways to fight against youth unemployment in large urban areas. Moreover, the phenomenon of socio-economic integration of young people in this township remains very little studied until now.

For this study, we use data resulting from the socio-economic integration of young people survey in Aboisso (2010).

Using the Heckman two-step procedure to control for selection bias, we firstly estimate the contribution of education to the employability of youth and secondly, we estimate its contribution to the monthly incomes of youth who are employed (Jeroen Smits, 2003)

Bibliography:

Becker G.S, (1993), Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis with difference to education, 3rd edition, the Chicago University press, Chicago.

Bomisso Germain, (2008), Insertion professionnelle des diplômés du supérieur à Abidjan, mémoire de fin de cycle, ENSEA, Abidjan.

Fu & Vincent, (1998), sg88: Estimating Generalized Ordered Logit Models, Stata Technical Bulletin 44: 27-30. In Stata Technical Bulletin Reprints, vol 8, 160-164. College Station, TX: Stata Press

Jeroen Smits (2003), Estimating the Heckman two-step procedure to control for selection bias with SPSS, (http://home.planet.nl/∼smits.jeroen)

Nauze-F. Emmanuelle et Tomasini Magda, (2002), Diplôme et insertion sur le marché du travail: approches socioprofessionnelle et salariale du déclassement, Έconomie et Statistique No. 354

Charlot Olivier, (2005), Education, emploi et participation au marché du travail dans un modèle d'appariement, Libre, Université de Franche-Comté “Recherches Έconomiques de Louvain”, Louvain Economic Review 71(1), 2005

Veronique Simonnet & Valerie Ulrich, (2002), La formation professionnelle et l'insertion sur le marché du travail: l'efficacité du contrat d'apprentissage, Έconomie et Statistique No. 337-338, 2000 - 7/8.

Keywords: Human capital or education; Youth unempoyment; Selection bias; Heckman two-step procedure

Biography: I'm Ibrahima CAMARA, I come from Guinea-Conakry.

I am a statistician economist graduated from National High School of Statistics and Applied Economics of Abidjan (Ivory Coast).

Before this graduation, I got a master's degree in computer science and statistical methods applied to the management of company at the university “GAMAL ABDEL NASSER” of conakry-Guinea.