IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/hdnspu/20116.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Active labor market programs: a review of the evidence from evaluations

Author

Listed:
  • Dar, Amit
  • Tzannatos, Zafiris

Abstract

The study reports evidence based on recent evaluation of active labor market programs, in developed countries, as well as on developing, and transition economies. While a number of unresolved technical issues, and a variety of data problems in specific surveys, and administrative information, tend to affect reliability for guiding public policy, some generalizations about active labor programs can be made. These programs reveal that public works programs can help disadvantaged groups, providing poverty/safety nets, but are ineffective instruments, in the pursue of permanent employment, whereas, job search assistance has positive impacts, and is cost-effective, although this assistance does not seem to improve employment, nor wages. In addition, training for long-term unemployed, may be helpful under an improving economy, but cost-effectiveness is usually disappointing, and, retraining has proven to be more expensive, and ineffective than job search assistance. Likewise, youth training provides no positive impact on employment prospects, and cannot be a substitute to education systems failures. Micro-enterprise development, and wage subsidy programs are usually associated with displacement effects, unlikely to have positive impacts. Modest programs, sound impact evaluation techniques, and cost-effectiveness are strongly recommended.

Suggested Citation

  • Dar, Amit & Tzannatos, Zafiris, 1999. "Active labor market programs: a review of the evidence from evaluations," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 20116, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:hdnspu:20116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2000/04/19/000094946_00040502394113/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. LaLonde, Robert J, 1986. "Evaluating the Econometric Evaluations of Training Programs with Experimental Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 604-620, September.
    2. Anders Forslund & Alan Krueger, 1994. "An Evaluation of the Swedish Active Labor Market Policy: New and Received Wisdom," Working Papers 711, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    3. Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 1996. "Benefit Duration and Unemployment Entry: Quasi-experimental Evidence for Austria," CEPR Discussion Papers 1521, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Anders Forslund & Alan B. Krueger, 1997. "An Evaluation of the Swedish Active Labor Market Policy: New and Received Wisdom," NBER Chapters, in: The Welfare State in Transition: Reforming the Swedish Model, pages 267-298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Jeffrey Smith, 2000. "A Critical Survey of Empirical Methods for Evaluating Active Labor Market Policies," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 136(III), pages 247-268, September.
    2. Burt S. Barnow & Jeffrey Smith, 2015. "Employment and Training Programs," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, Volume 2, pages 127-234, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Christine Erhel & Jérôme Gautié & Bernard Gazier, 1999. "Qu'a-t-on appris sur le lien salaire/ emploi grâce aux débats sur les politiques de l'emploi ?," Cahiers d'Économie Politique, Programme National Persée, vol. 34(1), pages 257-287.
    4. Reinhard Hujer & Marco Caliendo, 2003. "Lohnsubventionen in Deutschland: wie sieht eine optimale Evaluierungsstrategie aus?," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 72(1), pages 109-123.
    5. John P Martin, 1998. "What Works Among Active Labour Market Policies: Evidence from OECD Countries' Experiences," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Guy Debelle & Jeff Borland (ed.),Unemployment and the Australian Labour Market, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    6. Reinhard Hujer & Uwe Blien & Marco Caliendo & Christopher Zeiss, 2006. "Macroeconometric Evaluation of Active Labour Market Policies in Germany. A Dynamic Panel Approach Using Regional Data," AIEL Series in Labour Economics, in: Floro Ernesto Caroleo & Sergio Destefanis (ed.), The European Labour Market. Regional Dimensions, edition 1, chapter 14, pages 287-309, AIEL - Associazione Italiana Economisti del Lavoro.
    7. Smith, Jeffrey, 2000. "Evaluation aktiver Arbeitsmarktpolitik : Erfahrungen aus Nordamerika (Evaluating Avtive Labor Market Policies : Lessons from North America)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 33(3), pages 345-356.
    8. Robert J. Flanagan, 1999. "Macroeconomic Performance and Collective Bargaining: An International Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(3), pages 1150-1175, September.
    9. Gemma Garcia, 1998. "Unemployment and vacancies in Spain: Labour mismatch and active labour market policy," ERSA conference papers ersa98p182, European Regional Science Association.
    10. Dolly Bellani V. & Pablo García S. & Ernesto Pastén H., 2002. "Curva de Beveridge, Vacantes y Desempleo: Chile 1986-2002," Notas de Investigación Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 5(3), pages 105-119, December.
    11. Sanders Korenman & David Neumark, 2000. "Cohort Crowding and Youth Labor Markets (A Cross-National Analysis)," NBER Chapters, in: Youth Employment and Joblessness in Advanced Countries, pages 57-106, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Skedinger, Per, 1995. "Employment Policies and Displacement in the Youth Labor Market," Working Paper Series 432, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. Smith, Jeffrey, 2000. "Evaluation aktiver Arbeitsmarktpolitik : Erfahrungen aus Nordamerika (Evaluating Avtive Labor Market Policies : Lessons from North America)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 33(3), pages 345-356.
    16. Baird, Matthew D. & Engberg, John & Gutierrez, Italo A., 2022. "RCT evidence on differential impact of US job training programmes by pre-training employment status," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    17. Dettmann, E. & Becker, C. & Schmeißer, C., 2011. "Distance functions for matching in small samples," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 1942-1960, May.
    18. David Card, 2022. "Design-Based Research in Empirical Microeconomics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(6), pages 1773-1781, June.
    19. James J. Heckman, 1991. "Randomization and Social Policy Evaluation Revisited," NBER Technical Working Papers 0107, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Zhao, Jun, 2020. "Doubly robust difference-in-differences estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 219(1), pages 101-122.

    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:wbk:hdnspu:20116. 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: Aaron F Buchsbaum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wrldbus.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.