Articles

Youth unemployment and active labor market policies in Europe

Since the economic crisis in 2008, European youth unemployment rates have been persistently high at around 20% on average. The majority of European countries spends significant resources each year on active la...

Authors: Marco Caliendo and Ricarda Schmidl

European firm adjustment during times of economic crisis

This paper exploits a unique cross-country, firm-level survey to study the responses of European firms to the sharp demand and credit contraction triggered by the global Great Recession of 2009. The analysis r...

Authors: Silvia Fabiani, Ana Lamo, Julián Messina and Tairi Rõõm

Fiscal policies and the prices of labor: a comparison of the U.K. and U.S.

This paper measures the 2007–13 evolution of employment tax rates in the U.K. and the U.S. The U.S. changes are greater, in the direction of taxing a greater fraction of the value created by employment, and pr...

Authors: Casey B. Mulligan

Minimum wages and employment in China

Since China promulgated new minimum wage regulations in 2004, the frequency and magnitude of changes in minimum wages have been substantial. This paper uses county-level minimum wage data combined with urban h...

Authors: Tony Fang and Carl Lin

Fostering job search among older workers: the case for pension reform

Employment rates among senior workers (aged 55 or over) in southern Europe are among the lowest in OECD economies. Spain is a paradigmatic example, with high unemployment rates and very low workforce reentry r...

Authors: J. Ignacio García-Pérez and Alfonso R. Sánchez-Martín

European structural funds during the crisis: evidence from Southern Italy

We investigate the effectiveness of European Structural Funds on employment, population and house prices in 325 Local Labor Markets (LLM) located in Southern Italy. We exploit the variability in disbursements ...

Authors: Emanuele Ciani and Guido de Blasio

Who suffers from unemployment? The role of health and skills

Unemployment swings have distributional consequences if some groups are hit harder than others. We examine if the sensitivity to local unemployment rates varies by characteristics such as health, cognitive abi...

Authors: Anton Nilsson

Financial work incentives for disability benefit recipients: lessons from a randomised field experiment

Disability insurance (DI) beneficiaries lose part or all of their benefits if earnings exceed certain thresholds (“cash-cliffs”). This implicit taxation is considered the prime reason for the low number of ben...

Authors: Monika Bütler, Eva Deuchert, Michael Lechner, Stefan Staubli and Petra Thiemann

Did the Intergenerational Solidarity Pact increase the employment rate of older workers in Belgium? A macro-econometric evaluation

In December 2005, the Belgian government adopted the law on the Intergenerational Solidarity Pact (ISP) aimed at increasing the employment rate of older workers. The main policies of the ISP consist of a pensi...

Authors: Muriel Dejemeppe, Catherine Smith and Bruno Van der Linden

Transitional jobs after release from prison: effects on employment and recidivism

This paper presents the results of two experimental evaluations of transitional jobs programs for recently released former prisoners: the Evaluation of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) and the Tra...

Authors: Erin Jacobs Valentine and Cindy Redcross

How to fight long-term unemployment: lessons from Germany

The number of long-term unemployed in Germany has stagnated at around one million for several years. Despite excellent labour market conditions, the long-term unemployment rate is well above the OECD average. ...

Authors: Alexander Spermann

Breaking the low pay, no pay cycle: the effects of the UK Employment Retention and Advancement programme

This paper presents the final economic results of the UK Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) programme. ERA’s distinctive combination of post-employment advisory support and financial incentives was des...

Authors: Richard Hendra, James Riccio, Richard Dorsett and Philip K. Robins

A fiscal job? An analysis of fiscal policy and the labor market

This paper examines the role of fiscal policies in the dynamics of the labor market. Through the lenses of Okun’s Law, we assess how fiscal policy instruments as well as fiscal consolidation and expansion epis...

Authors: Elva Bova, Christina Kolerus and Sampawende J.A. Tapsoba

A decade of labour market reforms in the EU: insights from the LABREF database

This paper analyses the main features and determinants of labour market reforms in the EU over the period of 2000–2011 using the European Commission LABREF database. The data suggests that the timing, focus, a...

Authors: Alessandro Turrini, Gabor Koltay, Fabiana Pierini, Clarisse Goffard and Aron Kiss

Testing a conditional cash transfer program in the U.S.: the effects of the family rewards program in New York City

Family Rewards represents the first test of a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program in the U.S., offering families incentives for children’s education, family preventive health care and parents’ work and tra...

Authors: Cynthia Miller, James Riccio, Nandita Verma, Stephen Nuñez, Nadine Dechausay and Edith Yang

Do wage subsidies for disabled workers reduce their non-employment? - evidence from the Danish Flexjob scheme

We evaluate the potential of wage subsidy programs for reducing non-employment of the disabled by exploiting a reform of the Danish Flexjob scheme targeted towards employing the long-term (partially) disabled....

Authors: Nabanita Datta Gupta, Mona Larsen and Lars Stage Thomsen

Wage returns to mid-career investments in job training through employer supported course enrollment: evidence for Canada

Using longitudinal data for Canada, we analyze the incidence and wage returns to employer supported course enrollment for men and women. Availability of confidential data, along with a relatively rich set of o...

Authors: Wen Ci, Jose Galdo, Marcel Voia and Christopher Worswick

Erratum: Recent extensions of U.S. unemployment benefits: search responses in alternative labor market states

Authors: Robert G Valletta

Employment subsidies, informal economy and women’s transition into work in a depressed area: evidence from a matching approach

We analyze the effects of an ALMP for disadvantaged workers implemented in a depressed area of Italy. Using propensity-score matching, we find that a) the employment subsidy had a positive effect for participa...

Authors: Manuela Deidda, Adriana Di Liberto, Marta Foddi and Giovanni Sulis

The impact of the recession on the wealth of older immigrant and native households in the United States

Using the 2006 and 2010 Health and Retirement Study, we explore how the recent recession impacted the wealth holding and retirement plans of older households in the United States. Of particular interest to us ...

Authors: Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes and Susan Pozo

Taxation and female labor supply in Italy

Italy has the lowest labor supply of married women among EU countries. Moreover, the participation rate of married women is positively correlated with their husbands’ income. We show that these two features ca...

Authors: Fabrizio Colonna and Stefania Marcassa

Activation and active labour market policies in OECD countries: stylised facts and evidence on their effectiveness

Activation policies aimed at getting working-age people off benefits and into work have become a buzzword in labour market policies. Yet they are defined and implemented differently across OECD countries, and ...

Authors: John P Martin

What factors contributed to changes in employment during and after the Great Recession?

Unemployment increased drastically over the course of the Great Recession from 4.5 percent prior to the recession to 10 percent at its peak in October 2009. Since then, the unemployment rate has come down stea...

Authors: Ammar Farooq and Adriana D Kugler

Global Skill Partnerships: a proposal for technical training in a mobile world

Skilled workers emigrate from developing countries in rising numbers, raising fears of a drain on the human and financial resources of the countries they leave. This paper critiques existing policy proposals t...

Authors: Michael A Clemens

Is it worth it? Postsecondary education and labor market outcomes for the disadvantaged

In this paper we examine a range of postsecondary education and labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on minorities and/or disadvantaged workers. We use administrative data from the state of Florida, ...

Authors: Ben Backes, Harry J Holzer and Erin Dunlop Velez

Earned income tax credits, unemployment benefits and wages: empirical evidence from Sweden

Although there is a large literature on employment effects of earned income tax credits (EITCs) and unemployment benefits, less is known about wage effects. In our model, the impact is via the net (after-tax) ...

Authors: Helge Bennmarker, Lars Calmfors and Anna Seim

More on recent evidence on the effects of minimum wages in the United States

A central issue in estimating the employment effects of minimum wages is the appropriate comparison group for states (or other regions) that adopt or increase the minimum wage. In recent research, Dube et al. ...

Authors: David Neumark, JM Ian Salas and William Wascher

Return on investment of apprenticeship systems for enterprises: Evidence from cost-benefit analyses

A firm’s decision to engage in apprenticeship training is to a large extent determined by the cost-benefit ratio of such an investment compared to other alternatives of securing skilled workers. Empirical evid...

Authors: Samuel Muehlemann and Stefan C Wolter

In-work benefits for married couples: an ex-ante evaluation of EITC and WTC policies in Italy

This paper investigates labor supply and redistributive effects of in-work benefits for Italian married couples using a tax-benefit microsimulation model and a multi-sectoral discrete choice model of labor sup...

Authors: Giuseppe De Luca, Claudio Rossetti and Daniela Vuri

The costs of early school leaving in Europe

The reduction of early school leaving to less than 10 percent of the relevant population by 2020 is a headline target in the Europe 2020 strategy and one of the five benchmarks of the strategic framework for E...

Authors: Giorgio Brunello and Maria De Paola

Intensifying the use of benefit sanctions: an effective tool to increase employment?

In Germany, imposition of benefit cuts for non-compliant welfare recipients depends on the policy of the local welfare agencies resulting in considerable regional variation, expressed in milder and stricter sa...

Authors: Bernhard Boockmann, Stephan L. Thomsen and Thomas Walter

Trade liberalization, industry concentration and female workers: the case of Egypt

The gender wage gap increased significantly in Egypt over the last two decades, while female labor force participation rates have steadily declined. This study investigates the relationship between women’s lab...

Authors: Shireen AlAzzawi

Does leaving school in an economic downturn impact access to employer-sponsored health insurance?

Previous work documents that leaving school in an economic downturn persistently depresses career outcomes as measured by wages, earnings, and other markers of labor market success. In this study I test whethe...

Authors: Johanna Catherine Maclean

Recent extensions of U.S. unemployment benefits: search responses in alternative labor market states

In response to the 2007–09 “Great Recession,” the maximum duration of U.S. unemployment benefits was increased from the normal level of 26 weeks to an unprecedented 99 weeks. I estimate the impact of these ext...

Authors: Robert G Valletta

Worker adaptation and workplace accommodations after the onset of an illness

Workers who become work-incapacitated may try to change employer or stay with their current employer in an accommodated job. We study the effect of these strategies on sick-listed workers’ employment durations...

Authors: Jan Høgelund and Anders Holm

The political economy of the disability insurance: theory and evidence of gubernatorial learning

The dramatic rise in the disability insurance (DI) rolls in the last 20 years has been the subject of much controversy. While the relationship between DI and labor force participation has been the subject of a...

Authors: Radha Iyengar and Giovanni Mastrobuoni

The relationship between timely delivery of vocational rehabilitation services and subsequent federal disability benefit application and receipt

Federal/state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies offer services to individuals with disabilities that may help them remain in the labor force and avoid entering Social Security Administration (SSA) disabi...

Authors: Jody Schimmel Hyde, Todd Honeycutt and David Stapleton

Finding alternatives to disability benefit receipt

This introduction offers a context for the articles in this thematic series by providing an overview of the programs that provide cash and in-kind supports to people with disabilities in the United States, sum...

Authors: Gina Livermore, David Wittenburg and David Neumark

Dedication to David Dean

This special volume is dedicated to David H. Dean who passed away on August 11th, 2013. This dedication describes David’s impact on the academic research on disability and, most notably, the vital interaction ...

Authors: Joseph M Ashley, John V Pepper, Kirsten L Rowe, Robert M Schmidt and Steven Stern

Wage subsidies in developing countries as a tool to build human capital: design and implementation issues

This paper reviews international experiences with the implementation of wage subsidies and develops a policy framework to guide their design in developing countries. The evidence suggests that, if the goal is ...

Authors: Rita Almeida, Larry Orr and David Robalino

Reconciling findings on the employment effect of disability insurance

Over the last 25 years, the Social Security Disability Insurance Program (DI) has grown dramatically. During the same period, employment rates for men with work limitations showed substantial declines in both ...

Authors: John Bound, Stephan Lindner and Timothy Waidmann

The effect of vocational rehabilitation on the employment outcomes of disability insurance beneficiaries: new evidence from Canada

We estimate the effects of the vocational rehabilitation (VR) program run by the Canada Pension Plan Disability Program using administrative data. Identification relies on “selection on observed variables” plu...

Authors: Michele Campolieti, Morley KL Gunderson and Jeffrey A Smith

Dropout trends and educational reforms: the role of the LOGSE in Spain

Over the last 50 years, some important reforms in European countries were aimed at improving the system of vocational studies. By contrast, the Spanish educational law (LOGSE) from 1990 moved in the opposite d...

Authors: Florentino Felgueroso, Maria Gutiérrez-Domènech and Sergi Jiménez-Martín

Uncertainty, redistribution, and the labor market since 2007

Uncertainty and its composition can affect the demand for social insurance, and thereby the labor market. This paper shows that small to medium-sized increases in uncertainty or risk aversion are enough to rec...

Authors: Casey B Mulligan

State vocational rehabilitation programs and federal disability insurance: an analysis of Virginia’s vocational rehabilitation program

We examine the association between the receipt of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services and Federal Disability Insurance using a unique panel data source on persons who applied for assistance from Virginia’s...

Authors: David Dean, John V Pepper, Robert M Schmidt and Steven Stern

Initial impacts of the Ticket to Work program: estimates based on exogenous variation in Ticket mail months

This paper presents results from an impact analysis of the Ticket to Work (TTW) program, as implemented by the Social Security Administration (SSA) from 2002 through 2007. For new, young Social Security Disabi...

Authors: David Stapleton, Arif Mamun and Jeremy Page

Labor market policies and European crises

This paper studies theoretically and empirically why and how labor policies may reduce productivity and employment in order to stabilize labor incomes and redistribute resources. It proposes a specific stylize...

Authors: Giuseppe Bertola

Disability benefit growth and disability reform in the US: lessons from other OECD nations

Unsustainable growth in program costs and beneficiaries, together with a growing recognition that even people with severe impairments can work, led to fundamental disability policy reforms in the Netherlands, ...

Authors: Richard V Burkhauser, Mary C Daly, Duncan McVicar and Roger Wilkins

Tax structure and revenue instability: the Great Recession and the states

The Great Recession had the most severe impact on state tax revenues of any downturn since the Great Depression. We hypothesize that states with more progressive tax structures are more vulnerable to economic ...

Authors: Howard Chernick, Cordelia Reimers and Jennifer Tennant

Labor market policies and IMF advice in advanced economies during the Great Recession

In this paper we present and analyze the IMF’s labor market recommendations for advanced economies since the beginning of the crisis, both in general and specifically in program countries. Our analysis is info...

Authors: Olivier J Blanchard, Florence Jaumotte and Prakash Loungani