This paper analyses theoretically and empirically how employment subsidies should betargeted. We contrast measures involving targeting workers with low incomes/abilities andtargeting the unemployed under the criteria of "approximate welfare efficiency" (AWE)...

The Great Recession did not only affect European countries to a varying extent, its impact onnational labour markets and on specific socio-economic groups in those markets also variedgreatly. Institutional arrangements such as employment protection, unemployment insurancebenefits and minimum...

In 2001-02, Argentina experienced a wrenching economic crisis. Plan Jefes, implemented in May 2002, was Argentina´s institutional response to the increase in unemployment and poverty triggered by the crisis. The program provided a social safety net and appears to have successfully protected...

In Portugal duration of benefits is exclusively age determined while replacement rates are toall intents and purposes uniform. We exploit differences in potential maximum duration ofbenefits for nearly matched pairs of individuals who differ in age by one year and in potentialmaximum duration of...

The Swedish labour market and social policy is aimed at facilitating flexibility in the labourmarket. The active labour market policy and the design of the social security pension systemare two frequently mentioned examples of that policy...

A duration model based on the time on Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits instead of amodel based on the time till re-employment is more relevant from a cost-benefit perspective.The contribution of this paper is to extend the standard (mixed) Proportional Hazard model toaccount for an upper...

In this paper, we review the literature on the “spike” in unemployment exit rates aroundbenefit exhaustion, and present new evidence based on administrative data for a largesample of job losers in Austria. We find that the way unemployment spells are measured hasa large effect on the magnitude...

We evaluate the information content of admission conditions for study programs quality by investigating its relationship with graduates employability. We find that study programs with larger numeri clausi are associated with a higher probability of finding a job. Additionally, compulsory...

This paper contributes to the policy-relevant question whether self-employment is a way outof (long-term) unemployment. We estimate the relationship between the entry rate into selfemploymentand previous (long-term) unemployment on the basis of pseudo-panel data forGermany in the period 1996-2002...