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The impact of sanctions for young welfare recipients on transitions to work and wages and on dropping out

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The reintegration of young welfare recipients into the labor market is a major policy goal in many European countries. In this context monitoring and sanctions are important policy tools. In this paper, we analyze the impact of strict sanctions on job search outcomes for young welfare recipients in Germany. The German benefit system is characterized by harsh sanctions for this group. Strict sanctions effectively take away the benefits for three months if young welfare recipients do not comply with their job search requirements. We jointly analyze the impact of these sanctions on job search outcomes and on dropping out of the labor force based on administrative data on a large inflow sample of young male jobseekers into welfare. We estimate multivariate duration models taking selection based on unobservables into account. Our results indicate that there is a trade off between an increased job entry rate and an increased withdrawal from the labor force as well as lower entry wages. Sanctions increase the probability of finding a job, but these jobs go along with lower earnings. Moreover, sanctions significantly increase the probability of dropping out.

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  • van den Berg, Gerard J. & Uhlendorff, Arne & Wolff, Joachim, 2019. "The impact of sanctions for young welfare recipients on transitions to work and wages and on dropping out," Working Paper Series 2019:5, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2019_005
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    Cited by:

    1. Dahl, Espen S. & Hernaes, Øystein, 2022. "Making Activation for Young Welfare Recipients Mandatory," IZA Discussion Papers 15170, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Stefan Tübbicke, 2023. "How sensitive are matching estimates of active labor market policy effects to typically unobserved confounders?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 57(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Julia Schmidtke, 2023. "Linking information on unemployment benefit sanctions from different datasets about welfare receipt: proceedings and research potential," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 57(1), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Holger Schäfer, 2022. "Bürgergeld statt Hartz IV [Citizen’s Income (“Bürgergeld”) or Social Welfare (“Hartz IV”)?]," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 102(2), pages 82-85, February.
    5. Espen S. Dahl & Øystein Hernaes, 2023. "Making activation for young welfare recipients mandatory," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 37(1), pages 96-121, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social assistance; unemployment; sanctions; post unemployment outcomes; youth unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • C41 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies
    • 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

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