Knowledge gaps in evaluating labour market and social inclusion policies : use of counterfactual impact evaluation

This report reviews evidence about the impact of labour market policies of the type funded by the European Social Fund (ESF). Two sources were considered: academic papers over the 2000-2013 publication period and reports produced within the ESF Expert Evaluation Network (ESF-EEN) in the 2007-2013 programming period. These sources were searched for evaluations implementing Counterfactual Impact Evaluation (CIE) methodologies; findings were classified in terms of policy intervention, country, target group, year of intervention and CIE method. A knowledge gap was defined as the absence of CIE for a specific combination of the factors used in the classification. The identified knowledge gaps were then discussed on the basis of three importance criteria. The resulting ordering implies different levels of priority in filling the corresponding knowledge gaps, in light of the EU 2014-2020 programming period.