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The Relative Effectiveness of Selected Active Labour Market Programmes and the Common Support Problem

Author

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  • Stephan, Gesine

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg)

  • Pahnke, André

    (IfM Bonn)

Abstract

For Germany, we analyse the (relative) effects of participation in several active labour market programmes on the employment prospects of participants. First, our results show that different matching algorithms result in different severe problems of common support. Second, we obtain favourable effects of participation in training programmes, which is not true for job creation schemes. Third, while lock-in effects are smaller for shorter programmes, long retraining shows mainly positive effects compared to shorter training at the end of the observation period. Fourth, participants in job creation schemes are too different from participants in training programmes to conduct a reliable comparison.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephan, Gesine & Pahnke, André, 2008. "The Relative Effectiveness of Selected Active Labour Market Programmes and the Common Support Problem," IZA Discussion Papers 3767, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3767
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Pavel Stafek & Petra Sanova & Zuzana Novotna & Adriana Laputkova, 2016. "Effectiveness of Retraining as an Instrument for Solving the Problem of Structural Unemployment in the Czech Republic," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(3), pages 926-932.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    evaluation of active labour market programmes; propensity score matching; common support problem;
    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
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings

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