This paper analyses theoretically and empirically how employment subsidies should be targeted. We contrast measures involving targeting workers with low incomes/abilities and targeting the unemployed under the criteria of "approximate welfare efficiency" (AWE). Thereby we can identify policies...

The paper presents a stochastic insider-outsider model that accounts for the following stylized facts: (1) unemployment rates display a high degree of serial correlation, or `persistence'; (2) the average rate of unemployment has been higher in the United States than in Europe over the 1950s and...

We explore the far-reaching implications of replacing current unemployment benefit (UB) systems by an unemployment accounts (UA) system. Under the UA system, employed people are required to make ongoing contributions to their UAs and the balances in these accounts are available to them during...

The prevailing labour market models assume that minimum wages do not affect the labour supply schedule. We challenge this view in this paper by showing experimentally that minimum wages have significant and lasting effects on subjects’ reservation wages. The temporary introduction of a minimum...

In this paper, we present a summary of recent microeconometric results on the evaluation of the effects of active labour market policies on youth employment in France. We focus our discussion on three types of policies: (1) youth employment schemes for out-of-employment and low-skilled young...

This paper investigates the impact of active labour market policies (ALMPs) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia over the period 1991-4. Econometric results suggest that levels of these policies - including a dramatic reduction of ALMP spending in Slovakia by more than two-thirds in 1993 -...

This paper summarizes some of the findings of Boeri, Burda and Köllo (1998), which provide an overview of the state of labour markets in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe. It argues that a hasty ‘return to Europe’ with respect to labour market policies may not be in the...

A common explanation of low unemployment rates in the Czech Republic (CR) is the stance of active labour market policies (ALMPs), in particular the extensive use of ALMP instruments and an effective delivery system. Using a large panel of quarterly data from employment office districts, we...

Based on new, exceptionally informative and large German linked employer-employee administrative data, we investigate the question whether the omission of important control variables in matching estimation leads to biased impact estimates of typical active labour market programs for the...