Evidence-based youth entrepreneurship policies

There is no shortage of start-up support measures for young people in the EU. However, a new report from Eurofound warns policymakers that the failure to conduct more robust policy impact evaluations carries the risk of delivering ineffective interventions and wasting public money. 

The report, Start-up support for young people in the EU: From implementation to evaluation, points to many shortfalls both in policy delivery and in the evaluation exercise. This results from the lack of clearly defined objectives and quantifiable targets for many start-up support measures, which ultimately hampers the evaluation process. In the context of the implementation of the Youth Guarantee and the likely increase in public expenditure on start-up support for young people, there is a pressing need to design more evidence-based youth entrepreneurship policies.