Do Wage Subsidies Increase Employment in Subsidized Firms?

This paper examines whether subsidized jobs have contributed to employment in subsidized firms or have merely substituted for non-subsidized ones. The data-set is an unbalanced panel of some 31,000 firms that are followed annually between 1995 and 2002. The analysis is based on difference-in-differences, which is adjusted by regression and matching methods. The results indicate that wage subsidies stimulate employment, and that the magnitude of the effect is as aimed. I also found that subsidies have no sizeable effects on non-subsidized firms of the industry or the geographical area in question