In December 2005, the Belgian government adopted the law on the Intergenerational Solidarity Pact (ISP) aimed at increasing the employment rate of older workers. The main policies of the ISP consist of a pension bonus, reductions in employers' social security contributions and measures...

The public employment service (PES) makes use in many countries of vacancy referrals as to facilitate the matching between unemployed workers and vacancies. Based on a “timing-of-events” approach to control for selective participation, this study evaluates whether this policy instrument...

Hiring subsidies are widely used to create (stable) employment for the long-term unemployed. This paper exploits the abolition of a hiring subsidy targeted at long-term unemployed jobseekers older than 45 years of age in Belgium to evaluate its effectiveness in the short and medium run. Based on...