Are they Working? Market Orientation and the Effectiveness of Active Labour Market Programmes in Ireland. ESRI WP105. June 1999

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Evaluating State Programmes - “Natural Experiments” and Propensity Scores

Evaluations of programmes — for example, labour market interventions such as employment schemes and training courses — usually involve comparison of the performance of a treatment group (recipients of the programme) with a control group (non-recipients) as regards some response (gaining employment, for example). But the ideal of randomisation of individuals to groups is rarely possible in the social sciences and there may be substantial differences between groups in the distributions of individual characteristics that can affect response. Past practice in economics has been to try to use multiple regression models to adjust away the differences in observed characteristics, while also testing for sample selection bias. The Propensity Score approach, which is widely applied in epidemiology and related fields, focuses on the idea that “matching” individuals in the groups should be compared. The appropriate matching measure is usually taken to be the prior probability of programme participation. This paper describes the key ideas of the Propensity Score method and illustrates its application by reanalysis of some Irish data on training courses.

What Can Active Labour Market Policies Do?

Ireland faces a crisis of mass unemployment. More than 14 per cent of the labour force is unemployed, and long-term unemployment is growing rapidly. Active labour market policies (ALMPs) - consisting of a range of assistance, training and employment programmes to support the unemployed back to work - have been held out as an essential part of the policy response to unemployment. This paper examines a wide range of national and international research on the effectiveness of ALMPs to ask: i) what do ALMPs do for the unemployed?, ii) are some programmes more effective than others? iii) what can we expect ALMPs to achieve in a recession? The paper shows that while research on the impact of active labour market programmes is far from conclusive and faces a number of difficult methodological challenges, it does provide a basis on which to identify the types of programmes that have been found to enhance the employment prospects of their unemployed clients.labour market/Policy

The Incidence and Correlates of Workplace Bullying in Ireland. ESRI WP148. 2002

This paper reports the results of the first nationally representative survey of the incidence of workplace bullying in the Republic of Ireland. The results are based on analysis of a sample of over 5,200 individuals in paid work outside the home. Overall, 7% of per persons in the work-place report that they experienced bullying in the 6 months preceding the survey. Bullying victimisation was far more common among employees than among the self-employed, and victimisation rates were higher among women than men. Almost 3% of those at work report that they experienced bullying either daily or several times per week during the reference period. Multivariate analyses of the incidence of bullying suggest that workplace characteristics are more influential than personal attributes in determining bullying victimisation

The Impact of Flexible Working Arrangements on Work-Life Conflict and Work Pressure in Ireland. ESRI WP189. April 2007

Recent rapid economic growth in Ireland has been accompanied by a strong surge in the number of women in employment, and this has led to a significant increase in the proportion of dual-earner families. These changes have brought the issue of reconciliation between work and care commitments to the fore. Flexible working arrangements in firms have been identified as one important means of balancing work and other commitments (Evans 2001). In this paper we investigate the relationship between four flexible working arrangements – flexi-time, part-time hours, working from home and job-share – and two key employee outcomes – work pressure and work-life conflict, using data from the first national survey of employees in Ireland in 2003. Our results show that while part-time work and flexi-time tend to reduce work pressure and work-life conflict, working from home is associated with greater levels of both work pressure and work-life conflict. We conclude that it is important to distinguish between flexible working arrangements to discover their potential for reducing work pressure and work-life conflict

“One Dummy Won’t Get it: The Impact of Training Programme Type and Duration on the Employment Chances of the Unemployed in Ireland”. ESRI WP410. September 2011

In the extensive literature on the employment impact of public-sponsored training programmes for the unemployed, insufficient attention has been paid to the differential impact of different types of programmes and training duration. This paper uses a unique dataset, which tracks the labour market position of a cohort of unemployment benefit claimants for almost two years, to evaluate the impact of a range of government-sponsored training courses in Ireland. Overall, we found that those who participated in training were less likely to be unemployed at the end of the two-year study period. However, the average effect of training varied by the type and duration of training received. In general, we found strong positive effects for job-search skills training and medium-to high-level skills courses, a more modest positive effect for general vocational skills programmes (which are not strongly linked to demand in the labour market) and less consistent effects with respect to low-level skills training. We also found that training episodes with lower duration had a more positive impact, with the exception of high-level skills training programmes where longer training durations appear more effective. The results suggest that, in the Irish context, there are potentially substantial benefits to re-orientating unemployment training provision away from standard classroom vocational training towards the medium to high-level skill end of the market and demonstrate that, in most cases, training durations can be reduced without lowering the effectiveness of the interventions

International Migration in Ireland, 2015

This working paper is the Irish report to the OECD Expert Group on Migration. As such, the focus of the report is largely shaped by the reporting requirements for the preparation of the annual OECD International Migration Outlook. The purpose of the paper is to outline major developments and trends in migration and integration data and policy. The principal reference year is 2014, although information relating to early- 2015 is included where available and relevant. The Executive Summary provides an overview of the main findings of the report. Section 2 discusses the main developments in migration and integration policy in Ireland in 2014, including topics related to migration in the public debate. Section 3 discusses the statistics on inward and outward migration movements. Section 4 examines trends in the population. Migration and the labour market are discussed in Section 5.Department of Justice and Equalit

International Migration in Ireland, 2011. WP434. May 2012

The population of Ireland (Republic) continued to increase during 2010, to an estimated 4,484,300 in April 2011. However, in the context of the economic crisis, immigration declined to 31,000 in the twelve months to April 2010 and increased slightly to 42,300 in the twelve months to April 2011. Migratory outflows have also increased in recent years, as returning immigrants have added their numbers to emigrating Irish nationals. In the twelve months to April 2011, the inflow of 42,000 was offset by an estimated outflow of over 76,000, resulting in net outward migration of 34,100. In terms of non-Irish nationals relative to nationals, by the second quarter of 2011 the impact of the recession is evident and the total number of non-Irish nationals in the adult population had fallen to 374,000 or 10.7%

INVESTING IN PEOPLE: THE LABOUR MARKET IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCE INTERVENTIONS FUNDED UNDER THE 1994-1999 COMMUNITY SUPPORT FRAMEWORK IN IRELAND. THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, DUBLIN, 2000

Expenditure on human resource development represents a very large and important component of public expenditure and represented about one-third of total European Union aid to Ireland under the 1994-1999 Community Support Framework (CSF). The main objectives of tile CSF expenditures were to boost human capital by enhancing education and skill levels and to enhance the employment prospects of unemployed people. Given the scale and importance of these investments in human resources it is imperative to take a rigorous look at their impact. Noting that much of the existing evaluation work had taken the form of stand-alone evaluations of individual measures or thematic reviews of groups of measures, and that the evaluations have tended to be qualitative in nature, the Irish Department of Finance and the European Commission decided in 1998 to commission a study of the labour market impact of the education and training provisions across the CSF. The main aim envisaged for the study was to produce, as far as possible, quantified estimates of the net impact of interventions funded under the CSF on the labour market outcomes of participants and target groups. This study is the product of that commission. The present study focuses exclusively on the labour market impact of human resource interventions and it should be acknowledged that such programmes may also serve other objectives in preparing citizens for full participation in the economy and society. Our review of developments in the labor market during the 1990s, presented in Chapter 2, shows clearly that labour market conditions were transformed over the course of the 1994-1999 Conlmunity Support Framework. Over that brief period the booming economy led to a shift from mass unemployment to labor shortages. In the new scenario human resource interventions continue to play a vital role in meeting skill needs. In initial education, continued investment is essential to prepare young people for labour market entry and to match the growing demand for skilled workers. In labour market policies targeted at the unemployed, effective progranmaes can both enhance the employment prospects of those experiencing difficulty in the labour market and ease skill and labour shortages in tile booming economy