 Solution

If sex predicts apprenticeship uptake, extreme UTC sex ratios create both confounding and weak overlap. Matching only the aggregate percentage of boys may leave no genuinely comparable control, and an additive distance can hide a large imbalance in this influential variable. Sex may also be an effect modifier, so the UTC effect can differ across these unusual compositions. One should enforce close sex-ratio balance and estimate sex-specific effects before standardizing them to the intended policy population.