"We analyse the effects of public sector sponsored training for the unemployed in the transition process in East Germany. For the microeconometric analysis, we use a new, large and informative administrative database that allows us to use matching methods to reduce potential selection bias,...

This study analyses the effect of public sector sponsored continuous vocational training and retraining in East Germany after unification with West Germany in 1990. It presents estimates of the average gains from training participation in terms of earnings, employment probabilities and career...

After unification of the East and West German economies in July 1990 the public sector devoted substantial resources to train the labour force of the former centrally planned East German economy. In this paper we describe the basic trends of the rules and regulations governing these efforts. We...

Based on new, exceptionally informative and large German linked employer–employee administrative data, we investigate the question whether the omission of important control variables in matching estimation leads to biased impact estimates of typical active labor market programs for the...

Based on new, exceptionally informative and large German linked employer-employee administrative data, we investigate the question whether the omission of important control variables in matching estimation leads to biased impact estimates of typical active labour market programs for the...

Wage subsidies are often suggested as a particularly effective policy to improve labor market chances of economically disadvantaged groups. We empirically evaluate an employer-side wage subsidy scheme targeted at the long-term unemployed in Germany. Based on program regulations and a large data...

We survey the literature on the link of labour market related outcomes to individ-ual physical activity and sports participation. The first part of the survey is devoted to the individual participation decision and is based on papers from various disciplines. The sec-ond part summarises parts of...

This paper advocates the use of a nonparametric bounds analysis to check the robustness of the results of applied evaluation studies to the problem of a lack of common support. The typical responses by researchers of either ignoring it, or obtaining estimates only for the subpopulation within...