IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/sunrpe/2011_0009.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What active labor market policy works in a recession?

Author

Listed:

Abstract

This paper discusses the case for expanding active labor market policy in recession. We find that there is reasonable case for relying more heavily on certain kinds of programs. The argument is tied to the varying size of the lock-in effect in boom and recession. If programs with relatively large lock-in effects should ever be used, they should be used in a downturn. The reason is simply that the cost of forgoing search time is lower in recession. We also provide new evidence on the relative effectiveness of different kinds of programs over the business cycle. In particular we compare an on-the-job training scheme with (traditional) labor market training. We find that labor market training is relatively more effective in recession. This result is consistent with our priors since labor market training features relative large lock-in effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Forslund, Anders & Fredriksson, Peter & Vikström, Johan, 2011. "What active labor market policy works in a recession?," Research Papers in Economics 2011:9, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2011_0009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www2.ne.su.se/paper/wp11_09.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Card & Jochen Kluve & Andrea Weber, 2010. "Active Labour Market Policy Evaluations: A Meta-Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(548), pages 452-477, November.
    2. Fredriksson, Peter & Holmlund, Bertil, 2001. "Optimal Unemployment Insurance in Search Equilibrium," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 370-399, April.
    3. Peter Fredriksson & Bertil Holmlund, 2006. "Optimal unemployment insurance design: Time limits, monitoring, or workfare?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 13(5), pages 565-585, September.
    4. Erica L. Groshen & Simon M. Potter, 2003. "Has structural change contributed to a jobless recovery?," Current Issues in Economics and Finance, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 9(Aug).
    5. Michael Lechner & Conny Wunsch, 2009. "Are Training Programs More Effective When Unemployment Is High?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(4), pages 653-692, October.
    6. Kluve, Jochen, 2010. "The effectiveness of European active labor market programs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 904-918, December.
    7. Andreas I. Mueller, 2017. "Separations, Sorting, and Cyclical Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(7), pages 2081-2107, July.
    8. Fredriksson, Peter & Johansson, Per, 2008. "Dynamic Treatment Assignment," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 26, pages 435-445.
    9. David T. Ellwood, 1982. "Teenage Unemployment: Permanent Scars or Temporary Blemishes?," NBER Chapters, in: The Youth Labor Market Problem: Its Nature, Causes, and Consequences, pages 349-390, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Spinnewijn, Johannes, 2013. "Training and search during unemployment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 49-65.
    11. Schmieder, Johannes F. & Wachter, Till von & Bender, Stefan, 2010. "The effects of unemployment insurance on labor supply and search outcomes : regression discontinuity estimates from Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 201004, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    12. Conny Wunsch, 2013. "Optimal Use of Labor Market Policies: The Role of Job Search Assistance," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(3), pages 1030-1045, July.
    13. Chinhui Juhn & Kevin M. Murphy & Robert H. Topel, 1991. "Why Has the Natural Rate of Unemployment Increased over Time?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(2), pages 75-142.
    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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kunze, Astrid & Palczyńska, Marta & Magda, Iga, 2023. "The Employment Effects of a Wage Subsidy for the Young during an Economic Recovery," IZA Discussion Papers 16196, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Sarah Bernhard & Thomas Kruppe, 2012. "Effectiveness of Further Vocational Training in Germany – Empirical Findings for Persons Receiving Means-tested Unemployment Benefits," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 132(4), pages 501-526.
    3. Ulrike Huemer & Rainer Eppel & Marion Kogler & Helmut Mahringer & Lukas Schmoigl & David Pichler, 2021. "Effektivität von Instrumenten der aktiven Arbeitsmarktpolitik in unterschiedlichen Konjunkturphasen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 67250, March.
    4. Rüdiger Wapler & Daniel Werner & Katja Wolf, 2018. "Active labour market policies in Germany: do regional labour markets benefit?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(51), pages 5561-5578, November.
    5. Bernhard Boockmann & Christopher Osiander & Michael Stops, 2014. "Vermittlerstrategien und Arbeitsmarkterfolg – Evidenz aus kombinierten Prozess- und Befragungsdaten [Caseworkers’ strategies and clients’ labor market outcomes]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 47(4), pages 341-360, December.
    6. Rainer Eppel & Marian Fink & Helmut Mahringer, 2016. "Die Wirkung zentraler Interventionen des AMS im Prozess der Vermittlung von Arbeitslosen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 59029, March.
    7. Heinrich, Carolyn J. & Mueser, Peter R. & Troske, Kenneth & Jeon, Kyung-Seong & Kahvecioglu, Daver C., 2009. "New Estimates of Public Employment and Training Program Net Impacts: A Nonexperimental Evaluation of the Workforce Investment Act Program," IZA Discussion Papers 4569, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Antonia Asenjo & Verónica Escudero & Hannah Liepmann, 2024. "Why Should we Integrate Income and Employment Support? A Conceptual and Empirical Investigation," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(1), pages 1-29, January.
    9. Flesch, J. & Kuipers, J. & Mashiah-Yaakovi, A. & Schoenmakers, G. & Solan, E. & Vrieze, K., 2010. "Borel games with lower-semi-continuous payoffs," Research Memorandum 041, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    10. Jorge Rodríguez & Fernando Saltiel & Sergio Urzúa, 2022. "Dynamic treatment effects of job training," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(2), pages 242-269, March.
    11. Konstantinos Tatsiramos & Jan C. Ours, 2014. "Labor Market Effects Of Unemployment Insurance Design," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 284-311, April.
    12. Fitzenberger, Bernd & Furdas, Marina & Sajons, Christoph, 2016. "End-of-year spending and the long-run employment effects of training programs for the unemployed," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 16/08, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    13. Ruud Gerards & Joan Muysken & Riccardo Welters, 2014. "Active Labour Market Policy by a Profit-Maximizing Firm," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 52(1), pages 136-157, March.
    14. Thomas Kruppe & Julia Lang, 2018. "Labour market effects of retraining for the unemployed: the role of occupations," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(14), pages 1578-1600, March.
    15. Tadashi Morita & Yukiko Sawada & Kazuhiro Yamamoto, 2020. "Subsidy competition and imperfect labor markets," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(3), pages 698-728, June.
    16. Goller, Daniel & Harrer, Tamara & Lechner, Michael & Wolff, Joachim, 2021. "Active labour market policies for the long-term unemployed: New evidence from causal machine learning," Economics Working Paper Series 2108, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    17. Eva m. Berger & Guenther Koenig & Henning Müller & Felix Schmidt & Daniel Schunk, 2017. "Self-Regulation Training and Job Search Effort: A Natural Field Experiment within an Active Labor Market Program," Working Papers 1712, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    18. Alessio Brown & Johannes Koettl, 2015. "Active labor market programs - employment gain or fiscal drain?," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-36, December.
    19. Muller, Paul & van der Klaauw, Bas & Heyma, Arjan, 2017. "Comparing Econometric Methods to Empirically Evaluate Job-Search Assistance," IZA Discussion Papers 10531, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Eva M. Berger & Guenther Koenig & Henning Mueller & Felix Schmidt & Daniel Schunk, 2016. "Self-Regulation Training, Labor Market Reintegration of Unemployed Individuals, and Locus of Control Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment," Working Papers 1622, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, revised 2016.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Active labor market policy; business cycle; unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:sunrpe:2011_0009. 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: Anne Jensen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/neisuse.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.