In several OECD countries age-targeted wage subsidies have been introduced to increase the employment of older workers, but evidence on their effectiveness is scarce. This paper examines the effects of a permanent wage cost subsidy in Belgium on the employment rate, working time and hourly wage....

This study investigates whether and to what extent further unemployment experience for youths who are already long-term unemployed imposes a penalty on subsequent labor market outcomes. We propose a flexible method for analyzing the effect on wages aside of transitions from unemployment and...

Le plan d’accompagnement et de suivi des chômeurs introduit en juillet 2004 combine encouragements et menaces de sanctions. D’un côté, l’effort de recherche des chômeurs indemnisés est contrôlé plus étroitement et des sanctions sont prévues si cet effort est jugé insuffisant. De...

Het Plan voor de Begeleiding en de Opvolging van werklozen, dat in juli 2004 in België werd ingevoerd, combineert stimuli en sancties. Enerzijds wordt het zoeken naar werk van uitkeringsgerechtigde werklozen nauwgezetter gecontroleerd en gesanctioneerd indien onvoldoende zoekinspanningen...

We develop and estimate a non-stationary job search model to evaluate as scheme that monitors job search effort and sanctions insured unemployed whose effort is deemed insufficient. The model reveals that such schemes provide incentives to the unemployed to front-load search effort prior to...

This study investigates whether young unemployed graduates who accept a job below their level of education accelerate or delay the transition into a job that matches their level of education. We adopt the Timing of Events approach to identify this dynamic treatment effect using monthly calendar...

Since July 2004 the job search effort of long-term unemployed benefit claimants is monitored in Belgium. We exploit the discontinuity in the treatment assignment at the age of 30 to evaluate the effect of a notification sent at least 8 months before job search is verified. The threat of...

The current unemployment insurance and employment protection legislation were set up in an economic environment in which relationships between workers and firms were typically lon-lastingand stable. The increasing globalisation of the economy and the rapid technological and organisational...

This study exploits a natural experiment in Belgium to estimate the effect of co-payment increases on the demand for physician services. It shows how a differences-in-differences estimator of the price effects can be decomposed into effects induced by the common average proportional price...

This paper assesses whether short-lived jobs (lasting one quarter or less and involuntarily ending in unemployment) are stepping stones to long-lastinc jobs (enduring one year or more) for Belgian long-term unemployed school-leavers. We proceed in two steps. First, we estimate labour market...