"We are reporting from an evaluation of a municipal workfare pilot project. The program was intended to integrate young welfare recipients into employment. According to the workfare principle, participation was mandatory for those being assigned to the program. Welfare claims were denied for...

"We are reporting from an evaluation of a municipal workfare pilot project. The program was intended to integrate young welfare recipients into employment. According to the workfare principle, participation was mandatory for those being assigned to the program. Welfare claims were denied for...

A common problem of welfare states consists of a high unemployment risk for low-skilled workers. This is often attributed to a lack of jobs for the low-skilled, but it may as well be caused by a lack of incentives to work. Low-skilled workers are easily substitutable and therefore have little...

This study analyzes the treatment effects of public training programs for the unemployed in Germany. Based on propensity score matching methods we extend the picture that has been sketched in previous studies by estimating treatment effects of medium-term programs for different sub-groups with...

This paper formulates and estimates an open-economy overlapping generation general-equilibrium model of endogenous heterogeneous human capital in the form of schooling and on-the-job training. Physical capital accumulation is also analyzed. We use the model to explain rising wage inequality in...

Mit der Hartz-Reform wurden auch im Bereich der beruflichen Weiterbildung grundlegende Neuerungen eingeführt. Dazu gehören vor allem die Einführung von Bildungsgutscheinen als neuem Allokationsinstrument, das den potentiellen Teilnehmern Wahlfreiheit bei der Auswahl der Bildungsanbieter...

A variety of criteria are relevant for evaluating alternative policies in democratic societies composed of persons with diverse values and perspectives. In this paper, we consider alternative criteria for evaluating the welfare state, and the data required to operationalize them. We examine sets...

This paper summarizes our recent research on evaluating the distributional consequences of social programs. This research advances the economic policy evaluation literature beyond estimating assorted mean impacts to estimate distributions of outcomes generated by different policies and determine...

This paper summarizes our recent work on the rate of return and cost-benefit ratio of an influential early childhood program.

This paper compares the structural approach to economic policy analysis with the program evaluation approach. It offers a third way to do policy analysis that combines the best features of both approaches. We illustrate the value of this alternative approach by making the implicit economics of...