We argue civic virtue plays a key role in explaining the design of public insurance against unemployment risks by solving moral hazard issues which hinder the efficiency of unemployment insurance. We show, in a simple model, that economies with stronger civic virtues are more prone to provide...

Expenditures on job placement and related services make up a substantial share of many countries’ GDP. Contracting out to private providers is often proposed as a more efficient alternative to the state provision of placement services. However, the responsible state agency has to design and...

In many countries, employment services are contracted out to private providers. However, there is little evidence on the contract design as well as on the effects of differential pricing on private provider performance. This paper contributes to the literature by presenting detailed information...

Over the past several decades, the rate at which regular unemployment insurance recipients run out of benefits before they have found jobs, even in a strong labor market, has been gradually rising. For example, in 1973, 27.4 percent of UI recipients exhausted their benefits; in 2007 (with a...

In many countries, employment services are contracted out to private providers. However, there is little evidence on the contract design as well as on the effects of differential pricing on private provider performance. This paper contributes to the literature by presenting detailed information...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of the accessibility to employment offices on local unemployment rates according to the distribution of three different types of municipalities: large urban, small urban and non-urban. We built a new accessibility measure taking into account the...

Unemployment insurance is a key tool for risk sharing and redistribution and also a prominent automatic stabiliser. It is a volatile spending item by design, which can lead to vulnerabilities. This paper explores various shocks and sources of vulnerability of the unemployment insurance schemes...

Activation policies and programs are one of the main instruments to promote the transition from welfare to work and to (re)integrate people depending on social insurance benefits or social assistance into the labor market. However, to make labor market integration sustainable, disadvantaged...

Contracting out job placement services might save costs and provide a service capacity buffer in times of increasing unemployment. However, state agencies must be able to ensure a suitable balance between services and quality, and to carefully monitor and evaluate private provider outcomes....

The intention of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 is to inform and to provide guidance to some public policies. This Working Paper points out some shortcomings of the Study, both as to method and as to usefulness for national policies, by means of a critique of the formation of the...