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Is the Notification of Monitoring a Threat to the Unemployed? A Regression Discontinuity Approach

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  • Bart Cockx
  • Muriel Dejemeppe

Abstract

In July 2004, the Belgian government intensified monitoring within the Unemployment Insurance scheme. Workers claiming unemployment benefits for more than 13 months are notified that past job-search behavior will be monitored 8 months later. In one region the target group is counselled shortly after the notification, while in others not or only once the monitoring has taken place. We exploit the discontinuity in the treatment assignment at the age of 30 to evaluate the threat effect of the notification on the probability of employment. We find that the effect is heterogeneous and critically depends on whether and when notified workers are counselled.

Suggested Citation

  • Bart Cockx & Muriel Dejemeppe, 2007. "Is the Notification of Monitoring a Threat to the Unemployed? A Regression Discontinuity Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 2042, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2042
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Seamus McGuinness & Philip J. O’Connell & Elish Kelly, 2019. "Carrots, No Stick, No Driver: The Employment Impact of Job Search Assistance in a Regime with Minimal Monitoring and Sanctions," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 151-180, June.
    2. Kelly, Elish & McGuinness, Seamus & O'Connell, Philip J., 2011. "What Can Active Labour Market Policies Do?," Papers EC1, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    3. 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.
    4. Mich�le Belot & Vincent Vandenberghe, 2014. "Evaluating the 'threat' effects of grade repetition: exploiting the 2001 reform by the French-Speaking Community of Belgium," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 73-89, February.
    5. McGuinness, Seamus & O'Connell, Philip J. & Kelly, Elish, 2011. "Carrots without Sticks: The Impacts of Job Search Assistance in a Regime with Minimal Monitoring and Sanctions," Papers WP409, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    6. Svarer, Michael, 2007. "The Effect of Sanctions on the Job Finding Rate: Evidence from Denmark," IZA Discussion Papers 3015, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Bruno Crepon & Marc Ferracci & Grégory Jolivet & Gerard Van Den Berg, 2010. "Analyzing the Anticipation of Treatments with Data on Notification Dates," Working Papers 2010-41, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    8. Jonas Maibom & Michael Rosholm & Michael Svarer, 2017. "Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Early Meetings and Activation," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(3), pages 541-570, July.
    9. Muriel Dejemeppe & Bruno Van der Linden & Andrey Launov & Bart Cockx, 2011. "Monitoring and Sanctions in a Non-Stationary Structural Job-Search Model," 2011 Meeting Papers 501, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Cockx, Bart & Dejemeppe, Muriel, 2012. "Monitoring job search effort: An evaluation based on a regression discontinuity design," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 729-737.
    11. Rosholm, Michael, 2008. "Experimental Evidence on the Nature of the Danish Employment Miracle," IZA Discussion Papers 3620, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Hartman, Laura & Hesselius, Patrik & Johansson, Per, 2013. "Effects of eligibility screening in the sickness insurance: Evidence from a field experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 48-56.
    13. repec:dau:papers:123456789/6913 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    evaluation; monitoring job-search; threat effect; regression-discontinuity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy
    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate

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