This paper compares the effects of three policies that aim at fighting the low-skill unemployment problem in Belgium: reductions in employers?' social security contributions, hiring subsidies and in-work benefits. From evaluation studies and our analysis of the causes of unemployment in Belgium,...

Belgium is a multi-level government country. The regional performances of the labour market are quite different, yet some basic problems are common. This article raises the question : According to which principles should public interventions on the labour market be centralized or decentralized?...

This paper introduces in a non-technical way the range of methods used to evaluate the impact of a programme. The attention is limited to the estimation of the average treatment on the treated.