Measuring the "new balance of rights and responsibilities" in labor market policy : a quantitative overview of activation strategies in 20 OECD countries

Labor market policies have been re-configured during the "activation turn" in labor market policy-making in the 1990s. This included restricting behavioral requirements for job seekers and benefit claimants, but also improving services (e.g. better placement services). In a nutshell, the "rights and responsibilities" of jobseekers and labor market participants were re-balanced. To date, there is is no indicator that could capture this in a quantitative way. This paper sets out to fill this gap. Using a number of quantitative indicators for 20 core OECD countries, it is shown what instruments countries use and how they balance instruments that either enforce labor market participation or enable to participate. It is shown that countries are overall rather similar with regard to the degree of enforcement (responsibilities), but differ with regard to the support (rights) they offer. Despite similarities and differences transcending welfare regimes, three "worlds of activation" can be distinguished.