The Impact of Periodic Interviews on Unemployment Duration : Evidence from the 2017 Finnish Reform

In 2017, a Finnish policy reform intensified the Public Employment Services’ (PES) practice of periodically interviewing unemployed jobseekers. This study used high-quality administrative data to analyse the effect of interviews on unemployment duration. We used the difference-in-differences approach, which exploited regional variations in treatment intensity and considered possible displacement effects on non-treated jobseekers. Our results show that a 10-percentage-point increase in the interview probability increased the monthly hazard rate of employment by 3.6%, the effect being strongest among jobseekers aged 25–34 (7%) and with low education levels (5.2%). Also, our results show a strong effect (16.9%) on participation in active labour market programmes among jobseekers aged 20–24. Possible channels behind the effects include increased job search assistance, stricter monitoring and enhanced operating effectiveness of the PES