IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/23168.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Active Labour Market Policies in Denmark: A Comparative Analysis of Post-Program Effects

Author

Listed:
  • Blache, Guillaume

Abstract

The scope of the paper is to estimate post-program effects in fostering good transitions from unemployment to work. Such an issue implies that besides job finding rates, qualitative variables related to work have to be included as well. The evaluation is based on a comprehensive transversal dataset of Danes who ended an activation program in the year 2002, merged with individuals’ profile and retrospective yearly information related to their socioeconomic status, extent of working time and wage level. The control of unobserved heterogeneity and post-program effects are investigated through treatment-effects models. As regards transitions to work and full-time job, main results show fairly large positive effects for private sector employment programs. Smaller positive impacts are found for labour market training and services/sanctions, whereas negative coefficients are assigned to public sector employment programs. All things being equal, the large positive coefficient of the private sector employment programs’ category is the result of its closer link with the “ordinary” labour market which provides “contact effects”. It is worthwhile that job opportunities for private sector employment participants are highly dependent on the business cycle. Besides, this type of programss are submitted to “creaming effects” as unemployed with longer work experience benefit the most from the private sector. The best way to cope with labour shortage is education and training whereas the reduction of public expenditure can be achieved through sanctions programs. The “work first” strategy of this last category of programs is more profitable for the unemployed who benefit from social network. Such a situation leads to “dead-weight effects” thus making public intervention unnecessary. Long-term effects on wages are the most positive for those who where involved into labour market training programs because off the higher return to education in line with human capital theory. Services/sanctions also get fairly positive coefficients for the wage level. Coefficients are not statistically significant for private sector employment programs and are negative for public sector employment. As suggested by previous studies, subsidised programs can indeed be perceived by employers as to be a signal of lower-than-average productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Blache, Guillaume, 2008. "Active Labour Market Policies in Denmark: A Comparative Analysis of Post-Program Effects," MPRA Paper 23168, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 19 Feb 2009.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:23168
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/23168/1/MPRA_paper_23168.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosholm, Michael & Svarer, Michael, 2004. "Estimating the Threat Effect of Active Labour Market Programmes," IZA Discussion Papers 1300, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Rueda, David, 2006. "Social Democracy and Active Labour-Market Policies: Insiders, Outsiders and the Politics of Employment Promotion," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(3), pages 385-406, July.
    3. Kathryn H. Anderson & Richard V. Burkhauser & Jennie E. Raymond, 1993. "The Effect of Creaming on Placement Rates under the Job Training Partnership Act," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 46(4), pages 613-624, July.
    4. Rafael Lalive & Jan C. van Ours & Josef Zweimüller, 2005. "The Effect Of Benefit Sanctions On The Duration Of Unemployment," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(6), pages 1386-1417, December.
    5. Jaap H. Abbring & Gerard J. van den Berg, 2003. "The Nonparametric Identification of Treatment Effects in Duration Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1491-1517, September.
    6. Dan A. Black & Jeffrey A. Smith & Mark C. Berger & Brett J. Noel, 2003. "Is the Threat of Reemployment Services More Effective Than the Services Themselves? Evidence from Random Assignment in the UI System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1313-1327, September.
    7. 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.
    8. Rafael Lalive & Jan C. van Ours & Josef Zweimueller, "undated". "The Impact of Active Labor Market Programs on the Duration of Unemployment," IEW - Working Papers 041, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    9. Lars Pico Geerdsen, 2006. "Is there a Threat Effect of Labour Market Programmes? A Study of ALMP in the Danish UI System," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(513), pages 738-750, 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. Guillaume Blache, 2011. "Active labour market policies in Denmark: A comparative analysis of post-program effects," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 11071, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    2. Guillaume Blache, 2011. "Active Labour Market Policies in Denmark : A Comparative Analysis of Post-Program Effects," Post-Print halshs-00654181, HAL.
    3. Guillaume Blache, 2011. "Active Labour Market Policies in Denmark : A Comparative Analysis of Post-Program Effects," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00654181, HAL.
    4. Graversen, B.K. & van Ours, J.C., 2006. "How to Help Unemployed Find Jobs Quickly : Experimental Evidence from a Mandatory Activation Program," Discussion Paper 2006-126, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    5. Rosholm, Michael, 2008. "Experimental Evidence on the Nature of the Danish Employment Miracle," Working Papers 08-14, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    6. Michael Svarer, 2007. "The Effect of Sanctions on the Job Finding Rate: Evidence from Denmark," Economics Working Papers 2007-10, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    7. McGuinness, Seamus & O'Connell, Philip J. & Kelly, Elish & Walsh, John R., 2011. "Activation in Ireland: An Evaluation of the National Employment Action Plan," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS20, June.
    8. Bruno Crépon & Muriel Dejemeppe & Marc Gurgand, 2005. "Counseling the unemployed: does it lower unemployment duration and recurrence?," Working Papers halshs-00590769, HAL.
    9. Michael Rosholm & Michael Svarer, 2004. "Estimating the Threat Effect of Active Labour Market Programmes," CAM Working Papers 2004-14, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics.
    10. Michael Rosholm & Jonas Staghøj & Michael Svarer, 2007. "A Statistical Programme Assignment Model," Economics Working Papers 2007-16, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    11. Kelly, Elish & McGuinness, Seamus & O'Connell, Philip J., 2011. "What Can Active Labour Market Policies Do?," Papers EC1, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    12. Jan C. van Ours, 2007. "Compulsion in active labour market programmes," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 202(1), pages 67-78, October.
    13. Ott Toomet, 2008. "Threat Effect Of The Labour Market Programs In Denmark: Evidence From A Quasi-Experiment," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 62, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    14. International Monetary Fund, 2007. "Finland: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2007/278, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Torben M. Andersen & Michael Svarer, 2007. "Flexicurity: Labour Market Performance in Denmark," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 53(3), pages 389-429, September.
    16. van Ours, Jan C. & Krogh Graversen, Brian, 2007. "How to Help Unemployed Find Jobs Quickly; Experimental Evidence from a Mandatory Activation Program," CEPR Discussion Papers 6057, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. 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 Limited, vol. 32(7), pages 777-795, October.
    18. Frölich, Markus & Lechner, Michael, 2010. "Exploiting Regional Treatment Intensity for the Evaluation of Labor Market Policies," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(491), pages 1014-1029.
    19. Brian Graversen & Brian Larsen, 2013. "Is there a threat effect of mandatory activation programmes for the long-term unemployed?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 1031-1051, April.
    20. Røed, Knut, 2012. "Active Unemployment Insurance," IZA Policy Papers 41, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Active labour market policies; treatment-effects models; individual trajectories.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C52 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models

    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:pra:mprapa:23168. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.