"The support of start-ups out of unemployment within the legislative framework of Social Code III (SGB III) is still one of the most important instruments of active labour market policy. On August 1, 2006, the new 'Start-up Scheme' (§ 57 SGB III) replaced its predecessors, the 'Bridging...

"Active labour-market policy (ALMP) not only affects the labour-market success of participants. Due to indirect effects, they might also affect the job perspectives of non-participants. Hence, even if ALMP programmes have a positive effect for the participants, this does not mean that ALMP...

"Based on unique administrative data, which has only recently become available, this paper estimates the employment effects of the most important type of public sector sponsored training in Germany, namely the provision of specific professional skills and techniques (SPST). Using the inflows...

"Short-term training has recently become the largest active labor market program in Germany regarding the number of participants. Little is known on the effectiveness of different types of short-term training and on their long-run effects. This paper estimates the effects of short-term training...

"Seit dem Jahr 2003 wird der Zugang in Maßnahmen der beruflichen Weiterbildung durch die Arbeitsagentur über die Vergabe von Bildungsgutscheinen gesteuert. Diese Studie diskutiert zunächst aus theoretischer Sicht die Prozesse bei der Vergabe und Einlösung. Sie legt zudem erste Befunde zu der...

"Long-term public sector sponsored training programs often show little or negative short-run employment effects and often it is not possible to assess whether positive long-run effects exist. Based on unique administrative data, this paper estimates the longrun differential employment effects of...

"Job creation schemes (JCS) have been one important programme of active labour market policy (ALMP) in Germany for a long time. They aim at the re-integration of hard-to-place unemployed into regular employment. A thorough microeconometric evaluation of these programmes was hindered by the fact,...

"In recent years activation of means-tested unemployment benefit recipients has become a major issue of European labour market policy. We study the effect of participation in a new business start-up scheme for needy unemployed people in Germany. The programme was introduced at the beginning of...

"The major research contribution of this paper is an analysis of the selection processes in active labor market programs. Using findings from existing literature and expert interviews with job placement officers we define a realistic selection process ranging from the registration of...

"Contracting out placement services aims at enhancing the effectiveness of placements of unemployed job-seekers through market mechanisms. This paper analyses the effectiveness of the temporary assignment of needy job-seekers to private placement services by comparing their outcomes with respect...