TY - CHAP

T1 - The employment effects of job-creation schemes in Germany

T2 - A microeconometric evaluation

AU - Caliendo, Marco

AU - Hujer, Reinhard

AU - Thomsen, Stephan L.

N1 - Funding information: The authors thank Sascha O. Becker, Barbara Sianesi, Jeff Smith, the editors and one anonymous referee for valuable comments. The chapter has also benefited from discussions at the SOLE/EALE world conference in San Francisco, the annual meetings of the EEA in Amsterdam and the AIEL in Rome and the Economics Research Seminar at the University of St. Gallen. A supplementary appendix to this chapter is available on request from the authors and can also be downloaded from http://www.caliendo.de/Papers/advances_supplement.pdf . The usual disclaimer applies. This chapter emerged within the research project ‘Effects of Job Creation and Structural Adjustment Schemes’ financed by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).

PY - 2008/2/21

Y1 - 2008/2/21

N2 - In this chapter, we evaluate the employment effects of job-creation schemes (JCS) on the participating individuals in Germany. JCS are a major element of active labour market policy in Germany and are targeted at long-term unemployed and other hard-to-place individuals. Access to very informative administrative data of the Federal Employment Agency justifies the application of a matching estimator and allows us to account for individual (group-specific) and regional effect heterogeneity. We extend previous studies for Germany in four directions. First, we are able to evaluate the effects on regular (unsubsidised) employment. Second, we observe the outcomes of participants and non-participants for nearly three years after the programme starts and can therefore analyse medium-term effects. Third, we test the sensitivity of the results with respect to various decisions that have to be made during implementation of the matching estimator. Finally, we check if a possible occurrence of a specific form of 'unobserved heterogeneity' distorts our interpretation. The overall results are rather discouraging, since the employment effects are negative or insignificant for most of the analysed groups. One exception are long-term unemployed individuals who benefit from participation at the end of our observation period. Hence, one policy implication is to address the programmes to this problem group more closely.

AB - In this chapter, we evaluate the employment effects of job-creation schemes (JCS) on the participating individuals in Germany. JCS are a major element of active labour market policy in Germany and are targeted at long-term unemployed and other hard-to-place individuals. Access to very informative administrative data of the Federal Employment Agency justifies the application of a matching estimator and allows us to account for individual (group-specific) and regional effect heterogeneity. We extend previous studies for Germany in four directions. First, we are able to evaluate the effects on regular (unsubsidised) employment. Second, we observe the outcomes of participants and non-participants for nearly three years after the programme starts and can therefore analyse medium-term effects. Third, we test the sensitivity of the results with respect to various decisions that have to be made during implementation of the matching estimator. Finally, we check if a possible occurrence of a specific form of 'unobserved heterogeneity' distorts our interpretation. The overall results are rather discouraging, since the employment effects are negative or insignificant for most of the analysed groups. One exception are long-term unemployed individuals who benefit from participation at the end of our observation period. Hence, one policy implication is to address the programmes to this problem group more closely.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=39749098627&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/S0731-9053(07)00013-8

DO - 10.1016/S0731-9053(07)00013-8

M3 - Contribution to book/anthology

AN - SCOPUS:39749098627

SN - 9780762313808

T3 - Advances in Econometrics

SP - 381

EP - 428

BT - Modelling and Evaluating Treatment Effects in Econometrics

ER -