Session 1D: Education and Youth Unemployment in Bhutan (Auditorium 4)
Moderator: Milan Thomas
An investigation of youth unemployment in Bhutan
Sonam Lhendup and Milan Thomas
While overall unemployment is relatively low in Bhutan in typical years, youth unemployment has stood out as a concern since 2015. It peaked at 23% in 2020 as Bhutan grappled with economic disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bhutan is navigating a slow and incomplete recovery, and youth unemployment remains an elevated mix of long-term, structural unemployment and short-term, frictional unemployment. Using Labor Force Survey data, we investigate the distinction between unemployment types and characterize long-term unemployed youth. Profiling the long-term unemployed youth by gender, socioeconomic status, geography, and education background can focus efforts to promote youth employment in Bhutan.
JEL Code/s: E24, J13, M53
Learning loss in Bhutan from COVID-19 school closures: evidence from a student level panel of test scores
Ryotaro Hayashi, Xylee Javier, David Raitzer, Milan Thomas
Bhutan implemented school closures to control COVID-19 for approximately six months for students in grades 9-12. During this time, schools and households were heterogeneously equipped to deal with closure, in terms of communications assets and human resources. This paper quantifies the degree to which these factors, as well as personality characteristics, condition learning progression during the closure period, using a unique student level panel of subject matter national standardized test scores from before and after closure, in combination with student survey responses. Responses are analyzed both at the mean and at different points in the performance distribution.
JEL Code/s: I18, I21, I24
The effect of STEM career mentoring on students’ perceptions and educational choices: Field evidence from Bhutan
Ryotaro Hayashi, Bryant Kim (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Norihiko Matsuda (Florida International University), Trinh Pham (Cornell University)
We examine the effect of career mentoring on students who were about to decide which academic stream to study at high school, where only Science students are eligible to apply for all STEM college majors. The mentoring involves STEM-majored college students being randomly matched with secondary school students to share information on different aspects of STEM education. We find that the program significantly improves students’ perception and preference for science, with no heterogeneous effects across mentor-mentee gender pairs. Such changes, however, do not translate into increased Science stream enrollment, which could be explained by a lack of improvement in academic performance.
JEL Code/s: D83, I25, J16
The effect of TVET career mentoring on students’ perceptions and educational choices: Field evidence from Bhutan
Ryotaro Hayashi, Bryant Kim (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Norihiko Matsuda (Florida International University), Trinh Pham (Cornell University), Milan Thomas, David Raitzer
We examine the effect of career mentoring on students who were about to make decisions on their tertiary education. The mentoring involves TVET-major students being randomly matched with high school students to share information on different aspects of TVET education. We find that the program significantly boosts students’ interests in TVET, however, it does not translate into significant increases in actual TVET application and admission results.
JEL Code/s: D83, I25, J16
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