Active Labor Market Policies in Germany and Switzerland : One Vision - Two Realities

The paper develops a scenario of an interaction between actual governmental active labor market programmes and econometric policy evaluations. It argues that this scenario could and indeed should be implemented. The paper shows also that realities in Switzerland and Germany are very different from this ideal situation. The good news is that both countries appear to move - albeit slowly - towards that vision. It is however apparent that currently Germany is considerably lagging behind