Reintegrating Older Long-Term Unemployed Workers: The Impact of Temporary Job Guarantees

Alexander Ahammer, Martin Halla, Pia Heckl and Rudolf Winter-Ebmer
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Alexander Ahammer: Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz
Martin Halla: Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); Austrian National Public Health Institute (GOEG); Rockwool Foundation Berlin; and Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)
Pia Heckl: ifo Institute. Poschingerstraße 5, Germany; Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and CESifo
Rudolf Winter-Ebmer: Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS); Rockwool Foundation Berlin, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

No 63, IHS Working Paper Series from Institute for Advanced Studies

Abstract: Long-term unemployment among older workers is particularly difficult to overcome. We study the impacts of a large-scale job guarantee program that offered up to two years of fully subsidized employment to long-term unemployed individuals aged 50 and above. Using a sharp age-based discontinuity in eligibility, we find that participation increased regular, unsubsidized employment by 43 percentage points two years after the program ended. The gains are driven by transitions into new firms and industries, rather than continued subsidized employment, and we find no evidence of displacement effects for non-participants or spillovers to family members. The program had no measurable short-run health effects.

Keywords: Long-term unemployment; temporary job guarantee; subsidized employment; health status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H51 I14 J08 J64 J78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2026-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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https://irihs.ihs.ac.at/id/eprint/7366 First version, 2026 (application/pdf)

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