IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17612.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Early Active Labor Market Policies Improve Outcomes of Not-Yet-Unemployed Workers? Findings from a Randomized Field Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • van den Berg, Gerard J.

    (University of Groningen)

  • Stephan, Gesine

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg)

  • Uhlendorff, Arne

    (CREST)

Abstract

Inequality is a dynamic phenomenon, and the relative and absolute positions of individuals are subject to frequent shocks. It is important to know if preventive interventions mitigate adverse inequality effects of labor market shocks. We consider individuals up to three months before the envisaged termination of their employment and we study effects of pre-unemployment participation in active labor market programs (ALMP) on labor market outcomes using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). This complements the vast literature on ALMP for unemployed workers. Policies include signing an integration agreement (IA), preparing an action plan (AP) before the first meeting with a caseworker, and the combination of both. Results suggest that the IA - particularly when combined with the AP - increases the probability of employment around 4 months after registration as soon-to-be unemployed. This is driven by workers with a relatively high unemployment risk following registration. Thus, the policies contribute to reducing societal inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • van den Berg, Gerard J. & Stephan, Gesine & Uhlendorff, Arne, 2025. "Do Early Active Labor Market Policies Improve Outcomes of Not-Yet-Unemployed Workers? Findings from a Randomized Field Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 17612, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17612
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17612.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality; unemployment; work; job-to-job transitions; integration agreements; action plans; randomized controlled trial; job search; monitoring; counseling; machine learning;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

    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:iza:izadps:dp17612. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.