Purpose – To introduce the papers which make up a special issue of IJM on labour market intervention. Design/methodology/approach – Briefly describes each of the five papers which comprise this issue of IJM . Findings – Notes that the study contexts of the papers are New Zealand, the UK,...

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to assess the determinants and impact of employer sponsored further training on wage growth in West Germany over the period 1992 to 2002. Design/methodology/approach – Following a descriptive narrative on further training and wages in Germany, data derived...

Purpose – The aims of this paper are to measure the impacts of subsidy, work experience and training programmes on New Zealand male registered unemployed, and to examine the sensitivity of these estimates to the amount of time that participants are followed after an intervention....

Purpose – The paper aims to show that active labour market policies in Scotland over a nine‐year period have failed to meet key policy objectives. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the UK national online manpower information system (NOMIS) to conduct a detailed statistical...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of comprehensive education as compared with vocational training by using Swedish data on a large sample of unemployed individuals aged 25 to 55. Design/methodology/approach – The Adult Education Initiative (AEI) in Sweden was...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to model the dynamic path of adjustment towards pre‐unemployment levels of wellbeing for a group of full‐time workers who experienced job loss. Design/methodology/approach – Based on data from the German Socio‐economic Panel, a large‐scale panel...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the big-five personality traits and employees’ chances to become managers, paying particular attention to gender and sector differences. Design/methodology/approach – Using longitudinal data from the British...

Using a sample of some 300 small independent businesses, drawn from Central London, the paper examines how entrepreneurial behaviour affects business performance. It is argued that small businesses motivated by a desire to grow in terms of sales and/or employees and to survive in a dynamic and...