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An Efficiency Comparison of Regional Employment Offices Operating under Different Exogenous Conditions

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  • José V. Ramirez
  • Anatoli Vassiliev

Abstract

This paper investigates the technical efficiency differences of a sample of regional employment offices (REOs) across Swiss cantons. Regular job-search assistance, registration and matching of unemployed workers with job vacancies performed by employment offices are all important active labour market policies (ALMPs) which are often ignored in the literature evaluating the impact of active measures. The analysis is carried out by means of a stochastic production frontier model estimated on a panel of employment offices observed over the period between November 2000 and December 2001. The results show that the specific exogenous conditions exercise a strong influence over the technical efficiency of each employment office. Even though these conditions affect significantly the relative performance of regional employment offices, the managerial efficiency component does remain important. Hence, employment offices may improve their efficiency by adopting better managerial practices. Finally, the job placement process is characterised by decreasing returns to scale.

Suggested Citation

  • José V. Ramirez & Anatoli Vassiliev, 2007. "An Efficiency Comparison of Regional Employment Offices Operating under Different Exogenous Conditions," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 143(I), pages 31-48, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ses:arsjes:2007-i-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. George Sheldon, 2003. "The Efficiency of Public Employment Services: A Nonparametric Matching Function Analysis for Switzerland," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 49-70, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Stefanie Behncke & Markus Frölich & Michael Lechner, 2010. "Unemployed and their caseworkers: should they be friends or foes?," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 173(1), pages 67-92, January.
    2. Ewa Cichowicz & Ewa Rollnik-Sadowska & Monika Dędys & Maria Ekes, 2021. "The DEA Method and Its Application Possibilities for Measuring Efficiency in the Public Sector—The Case of Local Public Employment Services," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-13, May.
    3. Andersson, Christian & Månsson, Jonas & Sund, Krister, 2014. "Technical efficiency of Swedish employment offices," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 57-64.
    4. Althin, Rikard & Behrenz, Lars & Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Mellander, Erik, 2010. "Swedish employment offices: A new model for evaluating effectiveness," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(3), pages 1535-1544, December.
    5. Dyballa, Katharina & Kraft, Kornelius, 2020. "(In)Efficiency of Employment Offices: A Study on Welfare Benefits Determination – Is There a Trade-off between Time Saving Case Management and Quality of Decisions?," IZA Discussion Papers 13399, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regional employment offices; technical efficiency; exogenous conditions; stochastic frontier production function;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

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