Do German Welfare-to-Work Programmes Reduce Welfare Dependency and Increase Employment?
Journal
German Economic Review
ISSN
1465-6485
ISSN-Digital
1468-0475
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2011-05
Author(s)
Abstract (De)
During the last decade, many Western economies reformed their welfare system with the aim of activating welfare recipients by increasing welfare-to-work programmes (WTWP) and job-search enforcement. We evaluate the short-term effects of three important German WTWP implemented after a major reform in January 2005
(‘Hartz IV'), namely short training, further training with a planned duration of up to three months and public workfare programmes (‘One-Euro-Jobs'). Our analysis is based on a combination of large-scale survey and administrative data that is rich with respect to
individual, household, agency level and regional information. We use this richness of the data to base the econometric evaluation on a selection-on-observables approach. We find that short-term training programmes on average increase their participants' employment
perspectives. There is also considerable effect heterogeneity across different subgroups of participants that could be exploited to improve the allocation of welfare recipients to the specific programmes and thus increase overall programme effectiveness.
(‘Hartz IV'), namely short training, further training with a planned duration of up to three months and public workfare programmes (‘One-Euro-Jobs'). Our analysis is based on a combination of large-scale survey and administrative data that is rich with respect to
individual, household, agency level and regional information. We use this richness of the data to base the econometric evaluation on a selection-on-observables approach. We find that short-term training programmes on average increase their participants' employment
perspectives. There is also considerable effect heterogeneity across different subgroups of participants that could be exploited to improve the allocation of welfare recipients to the specific programmes and thus increase overall programme effectiveness.
Language
German
Keywords
Welfare-to-work policies
propensity score matching
programme evaluation
panel data
targeting
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Publisher place
Malden, MA
Volume
12
Number
2
Start page
182
End page
204
Pages
23
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
52930
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open.access
Name
DP_Scala_200901.pdf
Size
1.12 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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