Do employers discriminate against Active Labour Market Policies participants? A field experiment on the Youth Guarantee internship in Italy

Using a field experiment on Italy’s Youth Guarantee subsidised internships, this work investigates whether employers discriminate against candidates who participated in Active Labour Market policies at the beginning of their career. Specifically, 4,066 fictitious resumes were sent to real employers in 11 Italian cities. Each resume randomly displayed participation in the Youth Guarantee internship, a regular internship, or an unemployment gap after university graduation, followed by additional work experience. The results revealed that employers discriminate against former Youth Guarantee interns compared with those who are unemployed or regular interns. Discrimination is strongest when the resume does not show sectoral IT skills, suggesting that employers perceive the program to be detrimental to human capital accumulation and use it as a cue to statistically discriminate.