This paper discusses the potential introduction of permanent public subsidies to supplement the wages of low-paid workers in Italy, taking inspiration from Edmund Phelps' ideas on supporting the working poor. We consider how a negative taxation scheme for low-wage earners might address...

Digitization has spurred interest in the potential of statistical profiling to improve the targeting of active labor market policies. Despite growing adoption, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of such profiling in program allocation is scarce. We evaluate a semi-automated statistical...

This paper evaluates a hiring subsidy for lower-educated youths in Flanders (Belgium) that reduced labour costs by approximately 13% for a period of two years, starting in 2016. Using a donut Regression Discontinuity Design, we find no evidence that the subsidy improved the job finding rate of...

Policies supporting small businesses are popular among policymakers but often criticised by economists for their potential to distort the economy. This paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of a unique policy that subsidises the first employee. Empirically, we find that the policy led to a...

This paper uses data from the 24 governorates in Tunisia over the period 2012-2020 to study the relationship between job insertion of higher education graduates into the formal labor market and a number of independent variables, namely active labor supply, labor demand, an active labor market...

Minijobs are subsidized small jobs below a fixed earnings threshold. Since a reform in 2003, they are viewed as stepping stones to the first labor market. However, the Minijob subsidy generates a 'Minijob trap' that causes vast bunching at the Minijob earnings threshold. Therefore, Midijobs were...

Many countries subsidize low-income employments or small jobs. These subsidies and their phasing out can generate labor market frictions and distort incentives. The German Minijob program subsidizes low-income jobs. It generates a 'Minijob trap' with substantial bunching along the earnings...

This paper investigates whether incentives generated by public policies contribute to motherhood penalties. Specifically, we study the consequences of subsidized small jobs, the German Minijobs, which are frequently taken up by first-time mothers upon labor market return. Using a combination of...

Many countries subsidize low-income employments or small jobs. These subsidies and their phasing out can generate labor market frictions and distort incentives. The German Minijob program subsidizes low-income jobs. It generates a "Minijob trap" with substantial bunching along the earnings...

Despite hiring credits being a long-standing labor market policy, evidence of their impact at the firm level is limited. This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing an empirical analysis of an untargeted hiring credits policy introduced in Italy in 2015. We implement the...

We evaluate the impact of hiring subsidies for unemployed jobseekers in Wallonia, the Frenchspeaking region in the south of Belgium. The special feature of these subsidies is that they are more readily available for low-educated youths, who are eligible from registration as a jobseeker or a few...

To extend the labour market participation of seniors, numerous countries provide subsidies to incentivise their recruitment or employment. Prior research demonstrates that the effectiveness of such subsidies is rather unsatisfactory, although the reasons for this inadequacy remain unclear....

There is still a lack of knowledge on how to effectively help the long-term unemployed into employment. We evaluate a wide range of active labour market policies for this target group, using a dynamic matching approach. Measures vary considerably in the extent to which they improve labour market...

This study examines the application and impact of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) in supporting social enterprises (SEs) and the recruitment of disadvantaged workers across European Union (EU) Member States (MS). Findings reveal that national authorities often prefer alternative...

This paper investigates whether incentives generated by public policies contribute to motherhood penalties. Specifically, we study the consequences of subsidized small jobs, the German Minijobs, which are frequently taken up by first-time mothers upon labor market return. Using a combination of...

An unappreciated potential benefit of commuting subsidies is that they can expand the choice set of feasible job opportunities in a way that facilitates a better job match quality. Variations in wages and initial commuting distances, combined with major reforms of the commuting subsidy formula...

We estimate the causal effects of a pandemic-era wage subsidy program in Canada on job losses and business closures. Our estimates use administrative microdata and a regression discontinuity strategy to estimate the effects of marginal changes in the wage subsidy rate. The estimated net wage...

Wage subsidies served as a dominant labour market policy response around the world to mitigate job losses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, no causal evidence of their effects exists for developing countries. We use unique panel labour force survey data and exploit a temporary...

This paper attempts to estimate the impact of a rehiring subsidy implemented as part of the COVID-19 crisis impact response in Morocco. Using administrative data from the National Social Security Fund, it develops the instrumental variable method to estimate the causal effect of this scheme on...

This paper examines the labour market impacts of Finland's initial COVID-19 subsidy program, designed to mitigate the economic fallout of the pandemic. Utilising a novel and comprehensive dataset and a judge-leniency instrumental variables design, we analyse the effects of these subsidies at...

The main rationale for wage subsidies is giving job opportunities to workers who would otherwise remain unemployed or take jobs that do not exploit their potential productivity. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the wage subsidy programme in North Macedonia for the period 2018-2019 in order...

We use a regression discontinuity design and difference-in-differences estimators to estimate the impact of a one-shot hiring subsidy for low-educated unemployed youths during the Great Recession recovery in Belgium. The subsidy increases job-finding in the private sector by 10 percentage points...

Youth unemployment has been increasing in Africa. It is particularly pervasive in South Africa, where the youth unemployment rate is persistently high, posing considerable socioeconomic challenges. This study examines the extent to which the Employment Tax Incentive program increases youth...

We estimate the causal effects of a pandemic-era wage subsidy program in Canada on job losses and business closures. Our estimates use administrative microdata and a regression discontinuity strategy to estimate the effects of marginal changes in the wage subsidy rate. The estimated net wage...

This study investigates the employment effects of a large-scale wage subsidy programme for the young unemployed that was introduced in 2016, during a period of recovery in the Polish economy. The focus is on the question of whether the effects differed between men and women. The study employs a...