IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/labour/v37y2023i1p96-121.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making activation for young welfare recipients mandatory

Author

Listed:
  • Espen S. Dahl
  • Øystein Hernaes

Abstract

Activation policies to promote self‐sufficiency among recipients of welfare and other types of benefits are becoming more common in many welfare states. We evaluate a law change in Norway making welfare receipt conditional on participation in an activation program for all welfare recipients below the age of 30. Analysing the program's staggered implementation across municipalities with several modern event study estimators, we estimate that the law change had quite precise 0‐effects on benefit receipt, work and education. We also do not find any effects on the probability of being out of work or of being in employment, education or labour market programs. Qualitative evidence suggests that the zero effect may be due to the law change only impacting the participation of recipients with low expected gain from activation.

Suggested Citation

  • Espen S. Dahl & Øystein Hernaes, 2023. "Making activation for young welfare recipients mandatory," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 37(1), pages 96-121, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:37:y:2023:i:1:p:96-121
    DOI: 10.1111/labr.12238
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.12238
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/labr.12238?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bernt Bratsberg & Øystein Hernæs & Simen Markussen & Oddbjørn Raaum & Knut Røed, 2019. "Welfare Activation and Youth Crime," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(4), pages 561-574, October.
    2. David Card & Jochen Kluve & Andrea Weber, 2010. "Active Labour Market Policy Evaluations: A Meta-Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(548), pages 452-477, November.
    3. Hernæs, Øystein M., 2020. "Distributional effects of welfare reform for young adults: An unconditional quantile regression approach," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    4. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier d'Haultfoeuille & Yannick Guyonvarch, 2019. "DID_MULTIPLEGT: Stata module to estimate sharp Difference-in-Difference designs with multiple groups and periods," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03946768, HAL.
    5. David Card & Jochen Kluve & Andrea Weber, 2018. "What Works? A Meta Analysis of Recent Active Labor Market Program Evaluations," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 894-931.
    6. Hernæs, Øystein & Markussen, Simen & Røed, Knut, 2017. "Can welfare conditionality combat high school dropout?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 144-156.
    7. Emile Cammeraat & Egbert Jongen & Pierre Koning, 2022. "Preventing NEETs during the Great Recession: the effects of mandatory activation programs for young welfare recipients," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 749-777, February.
    8. Gerard J. van den Berg & Arne Uhlendorff & Joachim Wolff, 2022. "The Impact of Sanctions for Young Welfare Recipients on Transitions to Work and Wages, and on Dropping Out," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(353), pages 1-28, January.
    9. Richard Blundell & Monica Costa Dias & Costas Meghir & John Van Reenen, 2004. "Evaluating the Employment Impact of a Mandatory Job Search Program," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(4), pages 569-606, June.
    10. Manning, Alan, 2009. "You can't always get what you want: The impact of the UK Jobseeker's Allowance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 239-250, June.
    11. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    12. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    13. Avram, Silvia & Brewer, Mike & Salvatori, Andrea, 2018. "Can't work or won't work: Quasi-experimental evidence on work search requirements for single parents," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 63-85.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hernæs, Øystein M., 2020. "Distributional effects of welfare reform for young adults: An unconditional quantile regression approach," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Dahl, Espen S. & Hernaes, Øystein, 2022. "Making Activation for Young Welfare Recipients Mandatory," IZA Discussion Papers 15170, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Mareen Bastiaans & Robert Dur & Anne C. Gielen, 2023. "Activating the Long-Term Inactive: Labor Market and Mental Health Effects," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 23-003/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. Leduc, Elisabeth & Tojerow, Ilan, 2020. "Subsidizing Domestic Services as a Tool to Fight Unemployment: Effectiveness and Hidden Costs," IZA Discussion Papers 13544, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Lombardi, Stefano & Skans, Oskar Nordström & Vikström, Johan, 2018. "Targeted wage subsidies and firm performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 33-45.
    6. Altmann, Steffen & Falk, Armin & Jäger, Simon & Zimmermann, Florian, 2018. "Learning about job search: A field experiment with job seekers in Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 33-49.
    7. Albanese, Andrea & Cockx, Bart & Dejemeppe, Muriel, 2022. "Long-Term Effects of Hiring Subsidies for Unemployed Youths - Beware of Spillovers," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1168, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. van der Klaauw, Bas & Ziegler, Lennart, 2019. "A Field Experiment on Labor Market Speeddates for Unemployed Workers," CEPR Discussion Papers 13516, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Emile Cammeraat & Egbert Jongen & Pierre Koning, 2022. "Preventing NEETs during the Great Recession: the effects of mandatory activation programs for young welfare recipients," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 749-777, February.
    10. Goulas, Eleftherios & Zervoyianni, Athina, 2018. "Active labour-market policies and output growth: Is there a causal relationship?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-14.
    11. Eva m. Berger & Guenther Koenig & Henning Müller & Felix Schmidt & Daniel Schunk, 2017. "Self-Regulation Training and Job Search Effort: A Natural Field Experiment within an Active Labor Market Program," Working Papers 1712, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    12. Michael C. Knaus & Michael Lechner & Anthony Strittmatter, 2022. "Heterogeneous Employment Effects of Job Search Programs: A Machine Learning Approach," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(2), pages 597-636.
    13. Bratti, Massimiliano & Ghirelli, Corinna & Havari, Enkelejda & Santangelo, Giulia, 2018. "Vocational Training for Unemployed Youth in Latvia: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," IZA Discussion Papers 11870, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Cerqua, Augusto & Urwin, Peter & Thomson, Dave & Bibby, David, 2020. "Evaluation of education and training impacts for the unemployed: Challenges of new data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    15. Aşık,Güneş & Bossavie,Laurent Loic Yves & Kluve,Jochen & Nas Ozen,Selin Efsan & Nebiler,Metin & Oviedo Silva,Ana Maria, 2022. "The Effects of Subsidizing Social Security Contributions : Job creation or Informality Reduction ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9904, The World Bank.
    16. van der Klaauw, Bas & Ziegler, Lennart, 2019. "A Field Experiment on Labor Market Speeddates for Unemployed Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 12140, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Blázquez, Maite & Herrarte, Ainhoa & Sáez, Felipe, 2019. "Training and job search assistance programmes in Spain: The case of long-term unemployed," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 316-335.
    18. Bas Scheer & Wiljan van den Berge & Maarten Goos & Alan Manning & Anna Salomons, 2022. "Alternative Work Arrangements and Worker Outcomes: Evidence from Payrolling," CPB Discussion Paper 435, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    19. Mac Clay, Pablo & Börner, Jan & Sellare, Jorge, 2023. "Institutional and macroeconomic stability mediate the effect of auctions on renewable energy capacity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    20. Alex Hollingsworth & Krzysztof Karbownik & Melissa A. Thomasson & Anthony Wray, 2022. "The Gift of a Lifetime: The Hospital, Modern Medicine, and Mortality," NBER Working Papers 30663, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:37:y:2023:i:1:p:96-121. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csrotit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.