Back to work: The Long-term Effects of Vocational Training for Female Job Returners

Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit der Wirksamkeit von beruflicher Weiterbildung für Berufsrückkehrerinnen. Wir analysieren dazu eine 100% Stichprobe von Berufsrückkehererinnen, die von 2003-2005 an einen Bildungsgutschein erhalten haben und vergleichen diese mit einer zufällig gezogenen Kontrollgruppe aus administrativen Daten. Wir finden positiv signifikante Effekte auf die Beschäftigung, die Löhne sowie zahlreiche Ergebnisvariablen, die die Beschäftigungsstabilität und Qualität beschreiben

Bildungsgutscheine und Zertifizierung aus Sicht der Arbeitsverwaltung

Der Forschungsbericht stellt die Ergebnisse eines Befragungsprojekts zur Umsetzung der geförderten beruflichen Weiterbildung aus Sicht der Mitarbeiter der Arbeitsagenturen (SGB III) und Arbeitsgemeinschaften (SGB II) vor. Das primäre Ziel der Befragung ist es, Erkenntnisse über die Bewertung und die Umsetzung zweier Reforminstrumente in diesem Bereich zu gewinnen. Dabei handelt es sich um das im Jahre 2003 eingeführte Bildungsgutscheinverfahren und die etwas später umgesetzte Auslagerung der Zertifizierung von Bildungsträgern und Maßnahmen an private Prüfstellen. Anlass und Motivation dieser Untersuchung sind die existierenden Unterschiede in den Vergabeintensitäten der Bildungsgutscheine in den einzelnen Dienststellen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Prozesse in der Arbeitsverwaltung grundsätzlich gut funktionieren. Es zeigen sich Unterschiede in der Bewertung und Umsetzung einzelner Reformbestandteile, die auch in den Bewertungen und Umsetzungen der Prozesse nach Rechtskreis und Verantwortungsebene der befragten Personen deutlich werden. Dabei wird der Zugang zu geförderten Weiterbildung durch Bildungsgutscheine positiv bewertet. Die Qualitätssicherung durch private Prüfstellen erhält eine neutrale Bewertung. Eine differenzierte Betrachtung nach Rechtskreis und Verantwortungseben der befragten Personen zeigt, dass dieser Reformbestandteil insbesondere von Teamleitern aus dem SGB III Bereich negativ bewertet wird.Further training is one of the most important instrument of Active Labor Market Policy (ALMP) in Germany. It was strongly affected by the Hartz-Reforms, i.e. the implementation of training vouchers for the unemployed and the introduction of a twostage certification and quality management process to ensure transparency and high quality of training courses. In this study we present the results of an onlinesurvey project that aimed to investigate the assessment and the implementation of the reform instruments from a caseworkers and team leaders point of view. Given that we observe remarkable differences in the allocation of vouchers in different employment agencies, we decide to study also the administrative part of the reform in the agencies, beside others. The results show, that the implementation of the reform instruments works well in principal. We document significant differences in the assessment of the different parts of the reform that are also obvious in differences between agencies working according the Social Code III and Social Code II. Moreover, we find differences between the assessment of caseworkers and team leaders

Back to work: The long-term effects of vocational training for female job returners

This paper studies how training vouchers increase the employment prospects of women with interrupted employment histories. Using the population of female job returners who receive a training voucher to participate in training courses and a randomly selected control group from German administrative data, we analyze the effectiveness of training on the employment probability, monthly earnings and job quality. The results suggest that the receipt of a training voucher translates into a higher employment probability and higher monthly earnings. We find an positive impact on the job quality, e.g. the probability to be full-time employed increases significantly. In contrast, the probability to be marginally employed decreases by 5 percentage points in the long-run. We count this as an indicator for employment stability. The investigation of effect heterogeneity reveals some interesting insights regarding the vocational degrees, and the different types of training courses. The effectiveness of vocational training increases with the provided human capital in the courses. Several robustness checks support a causal interpretation of the results and highlight the importance of vocational training for the very special sub-group of female job-returners

Toward an understanding of collaborative tax evasion: A natural field experiment with businesses

Sales from businesses to consumers provide fertile ground for collaborative tax evasion. However, little is known about the phenomenon. We conduct a natural field experiment with 2,900 businesses in which we take the role of consumers and vary if we request an invoice for the delivery of a service. We find that 56% of businesses approach consumers with the intention to evade. The fraction is zero in the regulated market and 72% in the unregulated market. It increases when consumers signal their willingness to collude. Consumers can save 25% of the legal price on average if they agree to evade

Employment and earnings effects of awarding training vouchers in Germany

In 2003, Germany moved from a system in which participants in training programs for the unemployed are assigned by caseworkers to an allocation system using vouchers. Based on the rich administrative data for all vouchers and on actual program participation, we provide inverse probability weighting and ordinary least squares estimates of the employment and earnings effects of a voucher award. Our results imply that after the award, voucher recipients experience long periods of lower labor market success. On average, there are only small positive employment effects and no gains in earnings even four years after the voucher award. However, we do find significantly positive effects both for low-skilled individuals and for degree courses. The strong positive selection effects implied by our estimates are consistent with sizeable cream-skimming effects

Vocational Training for Female Job Returners - Effects on Employment, Earnings and Job Quality

This paper studies how training vouchers increase the employment prospects of women with interrupted employment histories. Using the population of female job returners who receive a training voucher to participate in training programs and a randomly selected control group from German administrative data, I analyze the effectiveness of training on various labor market outcomes. The results suggest that receiving a training voucher translates into substantial gains in employment and earnings and increases job quality and stability. Analyzing the heterogeneity effects reveals that the effectiveness of training increases with the provided human capital. Several robustness checks support a causal interpretation of the results

Identifying Causal Channels of Policy Reforms with Multiple Treatments and Different Types of Selection

We study the identification of channels of policy reforms with multiple treatments and different types of selection for each treatment. We disentangle reform effects into policy effects, selection effects, and time effects under the assumption of conditional independence, common trends, and an additional exclusion restriction on the non-treated. Furthermore, we show the identification of direct- and indirect policy effects after imposing additional sequential conditional independence assumptions on mediating variables. We illustrate the approach using the German reform of the allocation system of vocational training for unemployed persons. The reform changed the allocation of training from a mandatory system to a voluntary voucher system. Simultaneously, the selection criteria for participants changed, and the reform altered the composition of course types. We consider the course composition as a mediator of the policy reform. We show that the empirical evidence from previous studies reverses when considering the course composition. This has important implications for policy conclusions

Collaborative tax evasion in the provision of services to consumers - a field experiment

We conduct a field experiment with sellers of home-improvement services on two German online markets. We take the role of consumers and vary whether we requestan invoice for the delivery of the service. In a market which allows anyone to sellanonymously, a willingness to evade is prevalent. In a market that keeps track ofcredentials, sellers are only willing to evade when a willingness to collude is signaled.The evasion discount is in most estimates not larger than the tax subsidy for legaldemand. Evasion is unlikely to be beneficial for many consumers in our setting

The Long-Term Effects of Job Training on Labor Market and Skills Outcomes in Chile

Job training programs can be an effective policy for improving productivity and labor market outcomes in low and middle income countries. We report medium and long-term impacts of a job training program for vulnerable workers in Chile on labor market and skill outcomes using experimental and administrative data. We find that the program fails on improving workers’ skills and most labor outcomes but some evidence of a effect on labor income. We also find evidence of heterogeneous effects by course-type, training provider quality, and gender. This evidence aims at contributing to a better design of training programs and to a better use of public resources

Do Household Tax Credits Increase the Demand for Legally Provided Services?

We study the causal effects of household tax credits on the willingness to demand legally provided services using two survey experiments with 1.974 German homeowners. Participants choose between hypothetical offers of service providers and are randomly assigned to a policy scenario 1) without a tax credit, 2) a tax credit households can claim through the annual tax return, or 3) a tax credit granted by the seller at source. We also vary the refund rate of the tax credit (20/30%) and whether the price including the tax reduction is displayed. All tax credits increase the willingness to pay for offers with invoice as well as the probability to select an offer with invoice. The effectiveness of the tax credit is significantly higher when two attractive features (at source+30%) are combined or when the reduction is made salient. We estimate that about two thirds of respondents who would use the tax credit would have demanded an offer without invoice also without the tax credit