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Active labour-market policies in Germany : do regional labour markets benefit?

Author

Listed:
  • Wapler, Rüdiger

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany)

  • Werner, Daniel

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany)

  • Wolf, Katja

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany)

Abstract

"Active labour-market policy (ALMP) not only affects the labour-market success of participants. Due to indirect effects, they might also affect the job perspectives of non-participants. Hence, even if ALMP programmes have a positive effect for the participants, this does not mean that ALMP improves the labour-market situation as a whole. Therefore, this paper deals with the question whether ALMP improves the matching-process between job-seekers and vacancies and thus increases the total number of outflows from unemployment into employment at the regional level. To answer this question, we use data for local employment offices of the German Federal Employment Agency for the time period 2006 to 2010 and focus on job-seekers subject to unemployment insurance. As microeconometric evaluation studies show, the search effectiveness of programme participants is low during participation due to the lock-in effect, but ideally increases at the end of the programme. In contrast to previous studies on aggregate effects of ALMP, we take this into account and explicitly differentiate current and former programme participants. The result from our augmented matching function shows that the lock-in effect is also present on the regional level. However, a higher search effectiveness after completion of the programme is not outweighed by potential indirect effects on non-participants. A higher share of former programme participants among the job-seekers in a region leads to an increase of the regional matches. This findings show that the application of ALMP improves the regional matching process. However, this effect varies largely between different types of programmes. Positive effects occur for long-term vocational training and wage subsidies as well as for in-firm training measures. Further, our results show that the effect of the different programme types depends to some extent on the regional labour-market situation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Suggested Citation

  • Wapler, Rüdiger & Werner, Daniel & Wolf, Katja, 2014. "Active labour-market policies in Germany : do regional labour markets benefit?," IAB-Discussion Paper 201428, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    • Handle: RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201428
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    Cited by:

    1. Eichhorst, Werner & Konle-Seidl, Regina, 2016. "Evaluating Labour Market Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 9966, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Ulrike Unterhofer & Conny Wunsch, 2022. "Macroeconomic Effects of Active Labour Market Policies: A Novel Instrumental Variables Approach," Papers 2211.12437, arXiv.org.
    3. Melvin Vooren & Carla Haelermans & Wim Groot & Henriette Maassen van den Brink, 2022. "Make IT Work: The Labor Market Effects of Information Technology Retraining in the Netherlands," De Economist, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 323-342, August.
    4. Wapler, Rüdiger & Wolf, Katja & Wolff, Joachim, 2018. "Do active labour market policies for welfare recipients in Germany raise their regional outflow into work? : A matching function approach," IAB-Discussion Paper 201808, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    5. Wapler, Rüdiger & Wolf, Katja & Wolff, Joachim, 2022. "Do active labor market policies for welfare recipients in Germany raise their regional outflow into work?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 550-563.
    6. Büttner, Thomas & Schewe, Torben & Stephan, Gesine, 2015. "Wirkung arbeitsmarktpolitischer Instrumente im SGB III: Maßnahmen auf dem Prüfstand (Measures under scrutiny : The effectiveness of active labor market policy instruments in Germany)," IAB-Kurzbericht 201508, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    7. Marwa Sahnoun & Chokri Abdennadher, 2018. "The assessment of active labor market policies: evidence from OECD countries," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(2), pages 257-283, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bundesrepublik Deutschland ; Auswirkungen ; berufliche Reintegration ; Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien ; matching ; offene Stellen ; regionaler Arbeitsmarkt ; Teilnehmer ; Arbeitslose ; Arbeitsmarktpolitik ; arbeitsmarktpolitische Maßnahme ; Arbeitsuche ; Arbeitsuchende ; 2006-2010;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate
    • 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

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