Job-search Assistance Using the Internet - Evidence from a Swedish Randomised Experiment

This paper reports the experience from a randomised experiment offering voluntary job search assistance on the Internet to job seekers at Swedish public employment offices. Among those applying for participation, youth, highly educated and people living in big city areas were overrepresented. The evidence suggests that common difficulties inherent in the experimental approach, such as ethical concerns, bureaucratic behaviour and randomisation bias, have been circumvented. However, due to the voluntariness, the programme suffers from compliance problems in terms of both no-shows and drop-outs. The experimental intent-to-treat impact estimate fail to reject the hypothesis of a zero programme effect. Finally, a methodological comparison suggests that standard nonexperimental <p> techniques succeed in reproducing the nonbiased experimental results.