We evaluate direct wage subsidy programs to Finnish SMEs utilising as the unit of interest the firm and its characteristics. In estimating Average Treatment effects on the Treated firms (ATT) we apply recent techniques of propensity score matching algorithms developed by Becker and Ichino (2002)...

The literature evaluating active labour market programmes concentrates on the subsequent labour market performance of the unemployed work force that has undergone training or has spent a certain period in a subsidised job. The effects of programmes on firms have rarely been evaluated. Here we...

The present paper examines whether subsidised jobs have contributed to the employment in subsidised firms or merely substituted for non-subsidised ones. The data set is an unbalanced panel of some 31,000 firms that are followed annually between 1995 and 2002. The analysis is based on...

This paper investigates the effects of business subsidies on the employment of firms in Finland, and explores possible regional differences in the effects. Employment of some 26,000 firms is followed annually between 1995-1998. We find that labour subsidies increase the firms' own employment...