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Labor market programs, the discouraged-worker effect, and labor force participation

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This paper estimates the macroeconomic effect of labor market programs on labor force participation. Labor market programs could counteract business-cycle variation in the participation rate that is due to the discouraged-worker effect, and they could prevent labor force outflow. An equation that determines the participation rate is estimated with GMM, using panel data (1986-1998) for Sweden's municipalities. The results indicate that labor market programs have relatively large and positive effects on labor force participation. If the number of participants in labor market programs increases temporarily by 100, the labor force increases immediately by around 63 persons. The effect is temporary so the number of participants in the labor force returns to the old level in the next period. If the number of participants in programs is permanently increased, the labor force increases by about 70 persons in the long run. Programs are reducing the business-cycle variation in labor force participation because the effect is positive and programs are counter-cyclical and they counteract the discouraged-worker effect in the long run. The results indicate that programs could prevent labor force outflow; participants who would have left labor force in the abscence of programs are may now be participating because of the programs. Wages and vacancies have positive long- and short-run effects on participation rate. Open unemployment, the job destruction rate, and proportions of persons between ages 18-24 and 55-65 have negative long run effects on the participation rate.

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  • Johansson, Kerstin, 2002. "Labor market programs, the discouraged-worker effect, and labor force participation," Working Paper Series 2002:9, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2002_009
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    10. repec:rus:hseeco:10108 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Cited by:

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    4. Andrén, Thomas & Gustafsson, Björn Anders, 2002. "Income Effects from Labor Market Training Programs in Sweden During the 80’s and 90’s," IZA Discussion Papers 603, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    6. Öckert, Björn, 2002. "Do university enrollment constraints affect education and earnings?," Working Paper Series 2002:16, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    7. Martin O’Brien, 2011. "Discouraged Older Male Workers and the Discouraged Worker Effect," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 14(3), pages 217-235.
    8. Nymoen, Ragnar & Rodseth, Asbjorn, 2003. "Explaining unemployment: some lessons from Nordic wage formation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 1-29, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor supply; labor market programs; dynamic panel data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E64 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Incomes Policy; Price Policy
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

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