Job Search Assistance Programs in Europe: Evaluation Methods and Recent Empirical Findings

Job search assistance programs are part of active labor market policy in many countries. The main characteristics of these activities are an intensi ed counseling and a job search monitoring; in addition, several countries integrate courses teaching further skills into the programs. Job search assistance programs should help to increase the employment chances and to reduce the unemployment duration of the job seekers. In this paper, recent empirical ndings from evaluation studies for 9 European countries are reviewed and implications with regard to the e ectiveness of the activities are derived. To make the ndings of various studies evaluating the di erent programs comparable, the methodological issues of the empirical approaches applied to estimate the causal e ects of the programs are discussed in detail. In addition, relevant characteristics of the unemployment insurance systems, the assignment process, and the content of programs are presented to derive meaningful implications. The comparison of the programs takes account of individual e ects and, if available, cost bene t considerations. The results show that job search assistance programs tend to provide an e ective means to reduce individual unemployment, particularly if provided as combinations of intensive counseling and short-term training coursesJob search assistance programs, active labor market policy, evaluation methods, Europe

Explaining the Employability Gap of Short-term and Long-term Unemployed Persons

This paper analyzes the determinants of employability differences between short-term and long-term unemployed persons. Knowing these differences could help to address active labor market policy programs more adequately to the needs of the job-seekers in order to increase employment integration. Based on merged survey and register data differences in job finding chances of these groups are decomposed into a part due to differences in attributes and a part due to differences in valuing the attributes. The estimates clarify that current active labor market programs do not address important factors of employment. Particularly, health of the job seekers, limitations in the working ability and obstacles to employment comprising substance abuse, financial debts or care obligations for children or frail elderly play a significant role for successful placement. The conclusion is that policy makers should integrate these aspects in the placement process. --unemployment,employability,active labor market policy,decomposition,Germany

Explaining the Employability Gap of Short-term and Long-term Unemployed Persons

This paper analyzes the determinants of employability di erences between short-term and long-term unemployed persons. Knowing these di erences could help to address active labor market policy programs more adequately to the needs of the job-seekers in order to increase integration rates into employment. Based on merged survey and register data di erences in job nding chances of these groups are decomposed into a part due to di erences in attributes and a part due to di erences in valuing the attributes. The estimates clarify that current active labor market programs do not address important factors of employment. Particularly, health of the job seekers, limitations in the working ability and obstacles to employment comprising drug abuse, nancial debts or care obligations for children or frail elderly play a signi cant role for successful placement. The conclusion is that policy makers should integrate these issues in the placement process.unemployment, employability, self-reported job chances, active labor market policy, decompo- sition, Germany

Which one to choose? New evidence on the choice and success of job search methods

This paper provides new evidence on the choice and success of six different job search channels comprising the public employment agency, advertisements in newspapers and journals, internet job search, recruitment agencies, direct applications, and the social network. In addition, job search intensity and its effects are regarded. Relying on panel data for Germany, we are able to consider observed and unobserved heterogeneity in the estimation. In line with findings for other countries, the results show that consideration of various channels in individual job search increases the employment chances. With regard to the determinants, the estimates exhibit clear differences between the job search channels and with respect to search intensity. The results for success of the job search channels reveal that the public employment agency is ineffective and even harms the employment chances of the unemployed job seekers. In contrast, direct application for jobs and internet job search provide successful channels and increase the employment chances.job search, unemployment, job placement, Germany, SOEP

Are We Spending Too Many Years in School? Causal Evidence of the Impact of Shortening Secondary School Duration

This paper analyzes the impact of shortening the duration of secondary schooling on the accumulation of human capital. In 2003, an educational policy reform was enacted in Saxony-Anhalt, a German state, providing a natural experimental setting. The thirteenth year of schooling was eliminated for those students currently attending the ninth grade. Tenth grade students were unaffected. The academic curriculum remained almost unaltered. Primary data collected from the double cohort of 2007 Abitur graduates reveals signficantly negative effects for both genders in mathematics. Only females were negatively effected in English and the results obtained in German literature were statistically insignificant.student performance, school duration, learning intensity, natural experiment

Temporary extra jobs for immigrants: Merging lane to employment or dead-end road in welfare?

We evaluate the effects of the most frequently used German welfare-to-work program on the employment chances of immigrant welfare recipients. In particular, we investigate whether program effects differ between immigrants and natives and what might cause these potential differences. Our results reveal that the program fails to achieve its objectives. The effects are more adverse for natives, but the program does not help otherwise identical immigrants to leave the welfare system either. Therefore, the program is a dead-end road rather than a merging lane to regular employment both for natives and for immigrants. --Immigrants,employment programs,evaluation,decomposition of effects,Germany

Crowding out Informal Care? Evidence from a Social Experiment in Germany

This paper evaluates the effects of a professionally assisted consumer-directed program (Personal Budgets) compared to the standard home care programs of the German long-term care insurance. The evaluation makes use of a long-run social experiment at seven different sites with a random assignment into a treatment group receiving personal budgets and a control group in standard home care programs, i.e. an in-kind benefit (agency care) and cash payments. Compared to agency care personal budgets yield better care outcomes with regard to the overall support of formal and informal caregivers. In contrast, personal budgets do not improve care outcomes compared to the much less generous cash payments due to a strong crowding out of informal by formal care. --consumer-directed long-term care,social experiment,personal budget,evaluation,Germany

How do employment effects of job creation schemes differ with respect to the foregoing unemployment duration?

Based on new administrative data for Germany covering entrances into job creation schemes between July 2000 and May 2001, we evaluate the effects of this active labour market policy programme on the employability of the participating individuals. The programme effects are estimated considering the timing of treatment in the individual unemployment spell. Applying propensity score matching in a dynamic setting where the time until treatment in the unemployment spell is stratified into quarters, regional (East and West Germany) as well as gender differences are considered in the estimation. As matching is concerned with selection on observables only, we test the robustness of the estimates against possible unobserved influences. The results in terms of employment present a mixed picture. For West Germany, most of the estimates are insignificant at the end of the observation period, but positive exceptions are found for persons starting in the fifth or ninth quarter of the unemployment spell. For East Germany, none of the groups experiences an improvement of the labour market situation. Instead, the majority of the estimates establish negative employment effects until the end of the observation period (30 months after start of programmes). Hence, job creation schemes decrease the employment chances of the participating individuals. --Evaluation,Active Labour Market Policy,Job Creation Schemes,Administrative Data,Propensity Score Matching,Hidden Bias

Noncognitive skills in economics: Models, measurement, and empirical evidence

There is an increasing economic literature considering personality. This paper provides an overview on the role of these skills regarding three main aspects of economic analysis: measurement, theoretical modeling, and empirical estimates. Based on the relevant literature from different disciplines, the common psychometric measures used to assess personality are discussed. A recently proposed theoretical framework of human capital production takes personality explicitly into account. It is reviewed to clarify the understanding of crucial features of skill development. Based on these foundations, the main results of the empirical literature regarding noncognitive skills are classified along the research questions and summarized. --noncognitive skills,personality,human capital formation,psychometric measures