Christoph M. Schmidt

Measures of Active Labor Market Policy - such as training, wage subsidies, public employment measures, and job search assistance - are widely used in European countries to combat unemployment. Little, however, is known about what each country can learn from experiences in other countries. This study provides novel insight on this important policy issue by discussing the role of the European Commission's Employment Strategy, reviewing the experiences made in European states, and giving the first ever quantitative assessment of the existing cross-country evidence, answering the question "what labor market program works for what target group under what (economic and institutional) circumstances?". Using an innovative meta-analytical approach, the authors find that rather than contextual factors such as labor market institutions or the business cycle, it is almost exclusively the program type that matters for program effectiveness: While direct employment programs in the public sector appear detrimental, wage subsidies and "Services and Sanctions" can be effective in increasing participants' employment probability.

Das vorliegende Lehrbuch richtet sich vor allem an Studierende der Wirtschaftswissenschaften im Hauptstudium. Es hat zum Ziel, den Leser oder die Leserin bei der Entwicklung der Fähigkeit zu unterstützen, empirische Arbeiten „verstehen" und beurteilen zu können. Diese Fähigkeit ist für die Erstellung von Seminar- oder Diplomarbeiten ebenso wichtig, wie für die Lösung empirischer Probleme im Berufsleben oder die Beurteilung von eingebrachten Lösungsvorschlägen. Dieses Buch bedient sich vor allem grundlegender Methoden der angewandten Statistik und bietet somit gleichzeitig einen Einstieg in fortgeschrittenere Themen der Ökonometrie, wobei die formale Darstellung auf das absolut Notwendigste beschränkt bleibt. Des Weiteren werden alle Konzepte und Themen anhand illustrierender Beispiele vorgestellt. Vorlesungsfolien sind als PDF auf Anfrage bei den Dozenten erhältlich.

Measures of Active Labor Market Policy - such as training, wage subsidies, public employment measures, and job search assistance - are widely used in European countries to combat unemployment. Little, however, is known about what each country can learn from experiences in other countries. This study provides novel insight on this important policy issue by discussing the role of the European Commission's Employment Strategy, reviewing the experiences made in European states, and giving the first ever quantitative assessment of the existing cross-country evidence, answering the question "what labor market program works for what target group under what (economic and institutional) circumstances?". Using an innovative meta-analytical approach, the authors find that rather than contextual factors such as labor market institutions or the business cycle, it is almost exclusively the program type that matters for program effectiveness: While direct employment programs in the public sector appear detrimental, wage subsidies and "Services and Sanctions" can be effective in increasing participants' employment probability.