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What works and for whom: a review of OECD countries' experiences with active labour market policies

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Author Info
Martin, John P. () (IFAU - Office of Labour Market Policy Evaluation)
Grubb, David () (IFAU - Office of Labour Market Policy Evaluation)

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Abstract

Although rather discouraging in general, the evaluation literature indicates some measures that have been successful. Job-search assistance, wage subsidies in the private sector, and labour market training do work for some groups, even if the impacts are not large. Also, the evaluation literature focuses on the impacts of one-off programs. Regular interventions, such as job-search monitoring, intensive interviews, and referrals to vacant jobs, have rarely been evaluated rigorously. Recently, introduced "activation" strategies in some OECD countries do appear to yield significant employment gains for participants. An important element in such strategies is experiments with alternative ways of improving the performance of the public employment service.

Activation policies which combine high-quality assistance to find work with pressure on unemployed people to accept job offers can be effective with respect to unemployment duration, but more rapid returns to work sometimes comes at the cost of accepting lower re-employment earnings.

Although active policies might give rise to displacement effects in the short run, this need not be case the over the medium run of a few years. Declines in structural employment rates achieved by many OECD countries in the 1990s give some reasons for optimism in this respect.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation in its series Working Paper Series with number 2001:14.

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Length: 53 pages
Date of creation: 25 Sep 2001
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published in Swedish Economic Policy Review, 2001, pages 9-56.
Handle: RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2001_014

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Postal: Labour Market Policy Evaluation, P O Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Phone: (+46) 18 - 471 70 70
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Related research
Keywords: job search; wage subsidies; labour market training;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy
J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Public Policy

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Robert G. Fay, 1996. "Enhancing the Effectiveness of Active Labour Market Policies: Evidence from Programme Evaluations in OECD Countries," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 18, OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. [Downloadable!]
  2. Abbring, Jaap H. & Berg, Gerard J. van den & Ours, Jan C. van, 1996. "The effect of unemployment insurance sanctions on the transition rate from unemployment to employment," Serie Research Memoranda 0038, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Barrett, Alan & Whelan, Christopher T. & Sexton, J. J., 2001. ""Employability" and its Relevance for the Management of the Live Register," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number PRS40, November.
  4. Carling, Kenneth & Richardson, Katarina, 2001. "The relative efficiency of labor market programs: Swedish experience from the 1990's," Working Paper Series 2001:2, IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation. [Downloadable!]
  5. Robert G. Fay, 1997. "Making the Public Employment Service More Effective through the Introduction of Market Signals," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 25, OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. [Downloadable!]
  6. Peter Dolton; & Donal O'Neill, 1997. "The Long-Run Effects of Unemployment Monitoring and Work-Search Programs: Some Experimental Evidence from the U.K," Economics, Finance and Accounting Department Working Paper Series n710897, Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, National University of Ireland - Maynooth. [Downloadable!]
  7. Dan A. Black & Jeffrey A. Smith & Mark C. Berger & Brett J. Noel, 1999. "Is the Threat of Training More Effective Than Training Itself? Experimental Evidence from the UI System," UWO Department of Economics Working Papers 9913, University of Western Ontario, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Anders Forslund & Alan B. Krueger, 1994. "An Evaluation of the Swedish Active Labor Market Policy: New and Received Wisdom," NBER Working Papers 4802, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. repec:fth:prinin:332 is not listed on IDEAS
  10. Daniel Friedlander & David H. Greenberg & Philip K. Robins, 1997. "Evaluating Government Training Programs for the Economically Disadvantaged," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 1809-1855, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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