Caseworker's discretion and the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programs

Jonneke Bolhaar, Nadine Ketel and Bas van der Klaauw

Journal of Public Economics, 2020, vol. 183, issue C

Abstract: In this paper we focus on the role of caseworkers in the assignment and take-up of welfare-to-work programs. We conduct a field experiment that generates exogenous variation in the assignment of caseworkers to different policy regimes. The experiment allows us to provide evidence on the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programs and to study how caseworkers exploit their discretion in assigning these programs to welfare recipients. We find substantial heterogeneity in how caseworkers assign welfare-to-work programs. Participation in the experiment and learning about the effectiveness of the different programs do not induce caseworkers to focus more on the effective programs. Obtaining knowledge about welfare-to-work programs is thus not enough to improve policy, also effort on implementation is required.

Keywords: Field experiment; Welfare-to-work; Caseworkers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I38 J08 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272719301410
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Caseworker's discretion and the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programs (2018)
Working Paper: Caseworker's discretion and the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programs (2018)
Working Paper: Caseworker's Discretion and the Effectiveness of Welfare-to-Work Programs (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:183:y:2020:i:c:s0047272719301410

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2019.104080

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Public Economics is currently edited by R. Boadway and J. Poterba

More articles in Journal of Public Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().