Do German Welfare-to-Work Programmes Reduce Welfare and Increase Work?
Abstract
Many Western economies have reformed their welfare systems with the aim of activating welfare recipients by increasing welfare-to-work programmes and job search enforcement. We evaluate the three most important German welfare-to-work programmes implemented after a major reform in January 2005 ("Hartz IV"). Our analysis is based on a unique combination of large scale survey and administrative data that is unusually rich with respect to individual, household, agency level, and regional information. We use this richness to allow for a selection-on-observables approach when doing the econometric evaluation. We find that short-term training programmes on average increase their participants' employment perspectives and that all programmes induce further programme participation. We also show that there is considerable effect heterogeneity across different subgroups of participants that could be exploited to improve the allocation of welfare recipients to the specific programmes and thus increase overall programme effectivenessDownload Info
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Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen in its series University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2009 with number 2009-03.Length: 39 pages
Date of creation: Mar 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:usg:dp2009:2009-03
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Keywords: Welfare-to-work policies; propensity score matching; programme evaluation; panel data; targeting;Other versions of this item:
- Huber, Martin & Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny & Walter, Thomas, 2009. "Do German Welfare-to-Work Programmes Reduce Welfare and Increase Work?," IZA Discussion Papers 4090, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Huber, Martin & Lechner, Michael & Walter, Thomas & Wunsch, Conny, 2009. "Do German Welfare-to-Work Programmes Reduce Welfare and Increase Work?," CEPR Discussion Papers 7238, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Public Policy
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2009-03-22 (All new papers)
- NEP-HAP-2009-03-22 (Economics of Happiness)
- NEP-IAS-2009-03-22 (Insurance Economics)
- NEP-LAB-2009-03-22 (Labour Economics)
References
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Citations
Blog mentions
As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:- Welfare-to-work programs work, sort of
by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2009-04-27 14:00:00
Cited by:
- Hohmeyer, Katrin & Wolff, Joachim, 2010. "Direct job creation in Germany revisited: Is it effective for welfare recipients and does it matter whether participants receive a wage?," IAB Discussion Paper 201021, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
- Wolff, Joachim & Hohmeyer, Katrin, 2011. "Direct job creation revisited: Is it effective for welfare recipients and does it matter whether participants receive a wage?," Annual Conference 2011 (Frankfurt, Main): The Order of the World Economy - Lessons from the Crisis 48722, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
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"Temporary extra jobs for immigrants: Merging lane to employment or dead-end road in welfare?,"
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10-027, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
- Stephan L. Thomsen & Thomas Walter, 2010. "Temporary Extra Jobs for Immigrants: Merging Lane to Employment or Dead‐End Road in Welfare?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(s1), pages 114-140, December.
- Bergemann, Annette & Caliendo, Marco & van den Berg, Gerard J. & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2011.
"The threat effect of participation in active labor market programs on job search behavior of migrants in Germany,"
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2011:4, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
- Annette Bergemann & Marco Caliendo & Gerard J. van den Berg & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2011. "The threat effect of participation in active labor market programs on job search behavior of migrants in Germany," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 32(7), pages 777-795, November.
- Bergemann, Annette & Caliendo, Marco & van den Berg, Gerard J & Zimmermann, Klaus F, 2011. "The Threat Effect of Participation in Active Labor Market Programs on Job Search Behavior of Migrants in Germany," CEPR Discussion Papers 8295, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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- Christian Hohendanner, 2011. "Ein-Euro-Jobs und regulaere Beschaeftigung," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Department of Statistics and Economics, vol. 231(2), pages 210-246, April.
- John P. Haisken-DeNew & Matthias Vorell, 2009. "Killing them with Kindness: Negative Distributional Externalities of Increasing UI Benefits," Ruhr Economic Papers 0121, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
- Bernhard Boockmann & Stephan Thomsen & Thomas Walter, 2011. "Aktivierung der erwerbsfähigen Hilfebedürftigen mit arbeitsmarktpolitischen Maßnahmen – Wer wird gefördert?," AStA Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistisches Archiv, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 269-292, January.
- Aldashev, Alisher & Thomsen, Stephan L. & Walter, Thomas, 2010. "Short-term training programs for immigrants: do effects differ from natives and why?," ZEW Discussion Papers 10-021, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
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