IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/4707.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Effective Active Labour Market Policies

Author

Listed:
  • van Ours, Jan C.
  • Boone, Jan

Abstract

We present a theoretical and empirical analysis of different types of active labour market policies (ALMP). In our empirical analysis we use data on 20 OECD countries covering the time period 1985-99. We find that labour market training is the most effective program to bring down unemployment. Public employment services have some impact while subsidized jobs are not effective at all. Our theory considers ALMP in the context of a search-matching model.

Suggested Citation

  • van Ours, Jan C. & Boone, Jan, 2004. "Effective Active Labour Market Policies," CEPR Discussion Papers 4707, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:4707
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP4707
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michèle Belot & Jan C. van Ours, 2004. "Does the recent success of some OECD countries in lowering their unemployment rates lie in the clever design of their labor market reforms?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 621-642, October.
    2. Belot, Michele & van Ours, Jan C., 2001. "Unemployment and Labor Market Institutions: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 403-418, December.
    3. Blanchard, Olivier & Wolfers, Justin, 2000. "The Role of Shocks and Institutions in the Rise of European Unemployment: The Aggregate Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(462), pages 1-33, March.
    4. Jochen Kluve & Christoph M. Schmidt, 2002. "Can training and employment subsidies combat European unemployment? [‘The non-parametric identification of treatment effects in duration models’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 17(35), pages 409-448.
    5. Jan C. van Ours, 2000. "Do Active Labor Market Policies Help Unemployed Workers to Find and Keep Regular Jobs?," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 289, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    6. Nickell, Stephen & Layard, Richard, 1999. "Labor market institutions and economic performance," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 46, pages 3029-3084, Elsevier.
    7. Stephen Nickell, 1997. "Unemployment and Labor Market Rigidities: Europe versus North America," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 55-74, Summer.
    8. Calmfors, Lars & Forslund, Anders & Hemström, Maria, 2002. "Does Active Labour Market Policy Work? Lessons from the Swedish Experiences," Seminar Papers 700, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies.
    9. Martin, John P. & Grubb, David, 2001. "What works and for whom: a review of OECD countries' experiences with active labour market policies," Working Paper Series 2001:14, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    10. Mortensen, Dale T. & Pissarides, Christopher A., 1999. "New developments in models of search in the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 39, pages 2567-2627, Elsevier.
    11. Liliane Bonnal & Denis Fougère & Anne Sérandon, 1997. "Evaluating the Impact of French Employment Policies on Individual Labour Market Histories," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 683-713.
    12. Boone, Jan & Bovenberg, Lans, 2002. "Optimal labour taxation and search," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 53-97, July.
    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. Boone, J. & van Ours, J.C., 2004. "Effective Labor Market Policies," Other publications TiSEM 9b8aece5-8c99-4420-b98f-6, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142.
    3. Andrea Bassanini & Romain Duval, 2006. "The Determinants of Unemployment across OECD Countries," Post-Print halshs-00120584, HAL.
    4. H Buscher & C Dreger & R Ramos & J Surinach, 2009. "The Impact of Institutions on the Employment Performance in European Labour Markets," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 14(1), pages 17-34, March.
    5. Stephen Nickell, 2003. "A Picture of European Unemployment: Success and Failure," CEP Discussion Papers dp0577, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Zhe Wang, 2020. "Unemployment across the Euro Area: The Role of Shocks and Labor Market Institutions," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2020-05, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    7. Stephen Nickell, 2003. "Labour Market Institutions and Unemployment in OECD Countries," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 1(2), pages 13-26, October.
    8. Jan Boone & Jan Ours, 2009. "Bringing Unemployed Back to Work: Effective Active Labor Market Policies," De Economist, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 293-313, September.
    9. Carlo Altavilla & Floro E. Caroleo, 2006. "Evaluating the Dynamic Effects of Active Labour Policies in Italy," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 20(2), pages 349-382, June.
    10. Beissinger, Thomas, 2003. "Strukturelle Arbeitslosigkeit in Europa : eine Bestandsaufnahme (Structural unemployment in Europe * an inventory)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(4), pages 411-427.
    11. Alfonso Arpaia & Gilles Mourre, 2012. "Institutions And Performance In European Labour Markets: Taking A Fresh Look At Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 1-41, February.
    12. Pierre, Gaëlle & Scarpetta, Stefano, 2004. "Employment Regulations through the Eyes of Employers: Do They Matter and How Do Firms Respond to Them?," IZA Discussion Papers 1424, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Luca Nunziata, 2002. "Unemployment, Labour Market Institutions and Shocks," Economics Papers 2002-W16, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    14. Johanna Kemper, 2016. "Resolving the Ambiguity: A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Employment Protection on Employment and Unemployment," KOF Working papers 16-405, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    15. Zierahn, Ulrich, 2008. "Reform der schwedischen Arbeitsmarkt- und Tarifpolitik," HWWI Research Papers 1-14, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    16. Robert Dixon & G. C. Lim & Jan C. van Ours, 2017. "Revisiting the Okun relationship," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(28), pages 2749-2765, June.
    17. Bukowski, Maciej & Lewandowski, Piotr & Koloch, Grzegorz & Baranowska, Anna & Magda, Iga & Szydlowski, Arkadiusz & Bober, Magda & Bieliński, Jacek & Zawistowski, Julian & Sarzalska, Malgorzata, 2008. "Employment in Poland 2007: Security on flexible labour market," MPRA Paper 14284, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Beissinger, Thomas, 2003. "Strukturelle Arbeitslosigkeit in Europa: Eine Bestandsaufnahme," University of Regensburg Working Papers in Business, Economics and Management Information Systems 389, University of Regensburg, Department of Economics.
    19. José Ramón García, 2004. "Desempleo Y Estructura Impositiva En El Mercado De Trabajo De La Ocde," Working Papers. Serie EC 2004-21, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    20. Thiess Büttner & Peter Egger & Herbert Hofmann & Christian Holzner & Mario Larch & Volker Meier & Chang Woon Nam & Rigmar Osterkamp & Rüdiger Parsche & Martin Werding, 2006. "Tu felix Austria: Wachstums- und Beschäftigungspolitik in Österreich und Deutschland im Vergleich," ifo Forschungsberichte, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 31, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment; Active labour market programmes; Training; Subsidized jobs; Public employment services;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cpr:ceprdp:4707. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.