IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/ifauwp/2001_002.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The relative efficiency of labor market programs: Swedish experience from the 1990's

Author

Listed:

Abstract

This paper estimates the relative efficiency of eight Swedish labor market programs in reducing the unemployment duration for participants. The analysis uses a hazard regression model and a uniquely large and rich administrative data set that contains all adult workers who became unemployed during 1995-1997. We find that programs in which the participants obtain subsidized work experience and training provided by firms, have better outcome than classroom vocational training. The relative efficiency is similar across demographic and skill groups and independent of the timing of the placement. A careful examination of the assignment process to programs reveals no self-selection, but substantial administrative-selection. However, the administrative-selection appears to be unrelated to the outcome and, thus, should not bias the results.

Suggested Citation

  • 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 Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
  • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2001_002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ifau.se/upload/pdf/se/2001/wp01-2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dahlberg, Matz & Forslund, Anders, 1999. "Direct Displacement Effects of Labour Market Programmes: The Case of Sweden," Working Paper Series 1999:22, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    2. Angrist, Joshua D. & Krueger, Alan B., 1999. "Empirical strategies in labor economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 23, pages 1277-1366, Elsevier.
    3. Edin, P-A. & Holmlund, B., 1990. "Unemployment, Vacancies And Labour Market Programmes: Swedish Evidence," Papers 1990j, Uppsala - Working Paper Series.
    4. Wiji Narendranathan & Mark B. Stewart, 1993. "Modelling the Probability of Leaving Unemployment: Competing Risks Models with Flexible Base‐Line Hazards," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 42(1), pages 63-83, March.
    5. Michael Gerfin & Michael Lechner, 2002. "A Microeconometric Evaluation of the Active Labour Market Policy in Switzerland," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(482), pages 854-893, October.
    6. Carling, Kenneth & Soderberg, Hans, 1998. "An experimental comparison of gradient methods in econometric duration analysis," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 83-97, March.
    7. Heckman, James J. & Lalonde, Robert J. & Smith, Jeffrey A., 1999. "The economics and econometrics of active labor market programs," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1865-2097, Elsevier.
    8. Ridder, G, 1986. "An Event History Approach to the Evaluation of Training, Recruitment and Employment Programmes," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 1(2), pages 109-126, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gerfin, Michael & Lechner, Michael & Steiger, Heidi, 2005. "Does subsidised temporary employment get the unemployed back to work? Aneconometric analysis of two different schemes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 807-835, December.
    2. Michael Gerfin & Michael Lechner, 2002. "A Microeconometric Evaluation of the Active Labour Market Policy in Switzerland," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(482), pages 854-893, October.
    3. repec:pri:cepsud:158krueger is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Kluve, Jochen & Fertig, Michael & Jacobi, Lena & Nima, Leonhard & Schaffner, Sandra & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Card, David & Góra, Marek & Jensen, Peter & Leetmaa, Reelika & Patacchini, Eleonora & van , 2005. "Study on the effectiveness of ALMPs: Research project for the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Final report," RWI Projektberichte, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, number 69929.
    5. Norlin, Erik, 2003. "An Analysis of Immigrants’ Participation in Adult Education in Sweden," Umeå Economic Studies 617, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    6. Anders Forslund & Alan Krueger, 2010. "Did Active Labor Market Policies Help Sweden Rebound from the Depression of the Early 1990s?," NBER Chapters, in: Reforming the Welfare State: Recovery and Beyond in Sweden, pages 159-187, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Galina Vereshchagina, 2005. "Between-Firm Redistribution of Profit in Competitive Industries: Why Labor Market Policies May Not Work," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp268, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    8. International Monetary Fund, 2005. "Israel: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2005/134, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Stenberg, Anders, 2003. "An Evaluation of the Adult Education Initiative Relative Labor Market Training," Umeå Economic Studies 609, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    10. Forslund, Anders & Johansson, Per & Lindqvist, Linus, 2004. "Employment subsidies - A fast lane from unemployment to work?," Working Paper Series 2004:18, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    11. Calmfors, Lars & Forslund, Anders & Hemström, Maria, 2002. "Does active labour market policy work? Lessons from the Swedish experiences," Working Paper Series 2002:4, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    12. Fredriksson, Peter & Johansson, Per, 2004. "Dynamic Treatment Assignment – The Consequences for Evaluations Using Observational Data," IZA Discussion Papers 1062, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. van den Berg, Gerard J. & Vikström, Johan, 2019. "Long-Run Effects of Dynamically Assigned Treatments: a New Methodology and an Evaluation of Training Effects on Earnings," Working Paper Series 2019:18, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    14. Anders Forslund & Alan Krueger, 2010. "Did Active Labor Market Policies Help Sweden Rebound from the Depression of the Early 1990s?," NBER Chapters, in: Reforming the Welfare State: Recovery and Beyond in Sweden, pages 159-187, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Stenberg, Anders, 2003. "The Adult Education Initiative in Sweden –Second Year Effects on Wage Earnings and the Influence on Branch Mobility," Umeå Economic Studies 608, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    16. Vikström, Johan, 2015. "Evaluation of sequences of treatments with application to active labor market policies," Working Paper Series 2015:5, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    17. Michael Lechner, 2002. "Mikroökonometrische Evaluation arbeitsmarktpolitischer Massnahmen," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2002 2002-20, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
    18. 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.

    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. Carling, Kenneth & Richardson, Katarina, 2004. "The relative efficiency of labor market programs: Swedish experience from the 1990s," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 335-354, June.
    2. Michael Lechner & Ruth Miquel & Conny Wunsch, 2011. "Long‐Run Effects Of Public Sector Sponsored Training In West Germany," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 742-784, August.
    3. Barbara Sianesi, 2002. "Swedish active labour market programmes in the 1990s: overall effectiveness and differential performance," IFS Working Papers W02/03, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Badescu, Mircea & Garrouste, Christelle & Loi, Massimo, 2012. "The distribution of adult training among European unemployed: Evidence from recent surveys," MPRA Paper 49960, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Picchio, Matteo & van Ours, Jan C., 2013. "Retaining through training even for older workers," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 29-48.
    6. Michael Lechner, 2002. "Some practical issues in the evaluation of heterogeneous labour market programmes by matching methods," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 165(1), pages 59-82, February.
    7. Christian Volpe Martincus & Jerónimo Carballo, 2012. "Export promotion activities in developing countries: What kind of trade do they promote?," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 539-578, June.
    8. Stavros Rodokanakis, 2010. "A Non-Experimental Evaluation of Unemployment Risk in Crete and the Ionian Islands: Regional Evidence for Greece," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2010(4), pages 44-63.
    9. Barbara Sianesi, 2001. "Differential effects of Swedish active labour market programmes for unemployed adults during the 1990s," IFS Working Papers W01/25, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    10. Winterhager, Henrik & Heinze, Anja & Spermann, Alexander, 2006. "Deregulating job placement in Europe: A microeconometric evaluation of an innovative voucher scheme in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 505-517, August.
    11. Michael White and Genevieve Knight, 2003. "Benchmarking the effectiveness of NDYP: A review of European and US literature on the microeconomic effects of labour market programmes for young people," PSI Research Discussion Series 10, Policy Studies Institute, UK.
    12. Bia, Michela & Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso & Mercatanti, Andrea, 2018. "Evaluation of Language Training Programs in Luxembourg using Principal Stratification," GLO Discussion Paper Series 289, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. James J. Heckman, 2008. "The Principles Underlying Evaluation Estimators with an Application to Matching," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 91-92, pages 9-73.
    14. F. Alfonso Arellano, 2010. "Do Training Programmes Get The Unemployed Back To Work? A Look At The Spanish Experience," Revista de Economia Aplicada, Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Estructura Economica y Economia Publica, vol. 18(2), pages 39-65, Autumn.
    15. Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso & Gonzalez, Arturo & Neumann, Todd C., 2007. "Estimating the Effects of Length of Exposure to a Training Program: The Case of Job Corps," IZA Discussion Papers 2846, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Markus Frölich & Almas Heshmati & Michael Lechner, 2004. "A microeconometric evaluation of rehabilitation of long-term sickness in Sweden," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 375-396.
    17. Michael Lechner, 2002. "Mikroökonometrische Evaluation arbeitsmarktpolitischer Massnahmen," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2002 2002-20, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
    18. Michael Lechner, 2002. "Eine wirkungsorientierte aktive Arbeitsmarktpolitik in Deutschland und der Schweiz: Eine Vision – zwei Realitäten," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 3(2), pages 159-174, May.
    19. Heckman, James J., 2010. "The Assumptions Underlying Evaluation Estimators," Brazilian Review of Econometrics, Sociedade Brasileira de Econometria - SBE, vol. 30(2), December.
    20. Christian Volpe Martincus & Jerónimo Carballo, 2012. "Export promotion activities in developing countries: What kind of trade do they promote?," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 539-578, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Empirical Bayes methods; Employment duration; Program evaluation; Proxy variables; Selection bias; Simulations;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • C24 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models; Threshold Regression Models
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy
    • J69 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Other

    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:hhs:ifauwp:2001_002. 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: Ali Ghooloo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifagvse.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.