The Curse and Blessing of Training the Unemployed in a Changing Economy: The Case of East Germany after Unification
Journal
German Economic Review
ISSN
1465-6485
ISSN-Digital
1468-0475
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2007-12
Author(s)
Abstract
We analyse the effects of government-sponsored training for the unemployed conducted during East German transition. For the microeconometric analysis, we use a new, large and informative administrative database that allows us to use matching methods to address potential selection bias, to study different types of programmes, and to observe labour market outcomes over 8 years. We find strong evidence that, on average, the training programmes under investigation increase long-term employment prospects and earnings. However, as an important exception, the longer training programmes are not helpful for their male participants. At least part of the explanation for this negative result is that caseworkers severely misjudged the structure of the future demand for skills.
Language
English
Keywords
active labour market policies
causal effects
conditional independence assumption
evaluation
Germany
matching
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
De Gruyter
Volume
8
Number
4
Start page
468
End page
507
Pages
40
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
31856
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Format
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