IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/20280.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do wage subsidies enhance employability? Evidence from Australian youth

Author

Listed:
  • Richardson, James

Abstract

We examine a panel of unemployed Australian youth to investigate whether participation in a wage subsidy programme offers merely a temporary respite from unemployment, or whether there are longer-lasting positive employability effects. Controlling for selection bias using a bivariate probit analysis, we estimate the effect of participation in the Special Youth Employment Training Program on the probability of being employed in subsequent waves of the data, up to an average of 26 months after subsidy expiry. We find that far from breaking up when support expires, subsidies extend short duration jobs. Furthermore, we find large and significant effects of participation on the subsequent employability. Much of this arises from retention of subsidised jobs, but even excluding this we find evidence of longer-term positive effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Richardson, James, 1998. "Do wage subsidies enhance employability? Evidence from Australian youth," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20280, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:20280
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/20280/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Breen, R. & Halpin, B., 1989. "Subsidising Jobs: An Evaluation of the Employment Incentive Scheme," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number GRS144.
    2. Couch, Kenneth A, 1992. "New Evidence on the Long-Term Effects of Employment Training Programs," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(4), pages 380-388, October.
    3. O'Higgins, Niall, 1994. "YTS, Employment, and Sample Selection Bias," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(4), pages 605-628, October.
    4. Robert J. LaLonde, 1995. "The Promise of Public Sector-Sponsored Training Programs," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 149-168, Spring.
    5. Stretton, A. & Chapman, B.J., 1990. "An Analysis of Australian Labour Market Programs," CEPR Discussion Papers 247, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    6. Richardson, J., 1997. "Wage subsidies for the long term unemployed: a search theoretic analysis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20337, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. J Richardson, 1997. "Wage Subsidies for the Long Term Unemployed: A Search Theoretic Analysis," CEP Discussion Papers dp0347, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. repec:bla:econom:v:63:y:1996:i:249:p:113-30 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Christopher A. Pissarides, 1992. "Loss of Skill During Unemployment and the Persistence of Employment Shocks," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(4), pages 1371-1391.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aki Kangasharju, 2007. "Do Wage Subsidies Increase Employment in Subsidized Firms?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(293), pages 51-67, February.
    2. Ive MARX, 2001. "Job subsidies and cuts in employers' social security contributions: The verdict of empirical evaluation studies," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 140(1), pages 69-83, March.
    3. 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.
    4. Jeff Borland, 2016. "Wage Subsidy Programs: A Primer," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 19(3), pages 131-144.
    5. Antonio Estache & Elena Ianchovichina & Robert Bacon & Ilhem Salamon, 2013. "Infrastructure and Employment Creation in the Middle East and North Africa," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 12237.
    6. Osuna Victoria, 2009. "Taxing Overtime or Subsidizing Employment," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-28, October.
    7. Jochen Kluve & Susana Puerto & David Robalino & Jose Manuel Romero & Friederike Rother & Jonathan Stöterau & Felix Weidenkaff & Marc Witte, 2017. "Interventions to improve the labour market outcomes of youth: A systematic review of training, entrepreneurship promotion, employment services and subsidized employment interventions," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-288.

    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. J Richardson, 1998. "Do wage subsidies Enhance Employability? Evidence from Australian Youth," CEP Discussion Papers dp0387, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3085-3139 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. 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.
    4. Philip J. O'Connell & Frances McGinnity, 1997. "What Works, Who Works? The Employment and Earnings Effects of Active Labour Market Programmes among Young People in Ireland," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 11(4), pages 639-661, December.
    5. James Heckman, 2011. "Policies to foster human capital," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 3, pages 73-137.
    6. V. Joseph Hotz & Guido W. Imbens & Jacob A. Klerman, 2000. "The Long-Term Gains from GAIN: A Re-Analysis of the Impacts of the California GAIN Program," NBER Working Papers 8007, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Brian Bell & Richard Blundell & John Reenen, 1999. "Getting the Unemployed Back to Work: The Role of Targeted Wage Subsidies," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 6(3), pages 339-360, August.
    8. Philip J. O'Connell, 1999. "Are they working? Market Orientation and the Effectiveness of Active Labour Market Programmes in Ireland," Papers WP105, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    9. James Heckman, 1998. "What should be our human capital investment policy?," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 103-119, May.
    10. Lawrence F. Katz, 1996. "Wage Subsidies for the Disadvantaged," NBER Working Papers 5679, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. O'Higgins, Niall, 2001. "Youth unemployment and employment policy: a global perspective," MPRA Paper 23698, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. V. Joseph Hotz & Guido W. Imbens & Jacob A. Klerman, 2000. "The Long-Term Gains from GAIN: A Re-Analysis of the Impacts of the California GAIN Program," NBER Working Papers 8007, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Gorry, Aspen & Munro, David & vom Lehn, Christian, 2020. "Experience, skill composition, and the persistence of unemployment fluctuations," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    14. Raaum, Oddbjørn & Torp, Hege & Zhang, Tao, 2003. "Business cycles and the impact of labour market programmes," Memorandum 14/2002, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    15. Bart COCKX, 2000. "The design of active labour market policies: Building in effective incentives," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 139(4), pages 457-480, December.
    16. Andreas Pollak, 2008. "Optimal Unemployment Insurance with Variable Skill Levels," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 164(4), pages 696-726, December.
    17. Fortin, Bernard, 1997. "Dépendance à l’égard de l’aide sociale et réforme de la sécurité du revenu," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 73(4), pages 557-573, décembre.
    18. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2003. "Unemployment in Britain: A European Success Story," CESifo Working Paper Series 981, CESifo.
    19. Gordon Hanson & Chen Liu & Craig McIntosh, 2017. "The Rise and Fall of U.S. Low-Skilled Immigration," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 48(1 (Spring), pages 83-168.
    20. Nicola Pavoni & G. L. Violante, 2007. "Optimal Welfare-to-Work Programs," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(1), pages 283-318.
    21. María laura Alzúa & Guillermo Cruces & Carolina Lopez, 2016. "Long-Run Effects Of Youth Training Programs: Experimental Evidence From Argentina," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(4), pages 1839-1859, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

    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:ehl:lserod:20280. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.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.