Public Employment Agencies and Unemployment Spells: Reconciling the Experimental and Nonexperimental Evidence

Jonathan M. Thomas

ILR Review, 1997, vol. 50, issue 4, 667-683

Abstract: Econometric evidence strongly suggests that unemployed job-seekers who use the services of a Public Employment Agency (PEA) have longer unemployment spells than those choosing alternative search methods. Yet, in some well-designed U.S. experiments, increased use of PEA services has been associated with faster transitions into jobs. The author argues that the nonexperimental studies may be biased toward finding a positive relationship between unemployment spell duration and PEA use because they ignore the possibility that PEAs are chosen by many job-seekers only after other search methods have been tried unsuccessfully and a period of unemployment has elapsed. An analysis of U.K. survey data with information on the timing of PEA use in 1987–88 supports that hypothesis.

Date: 1997
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:50:y:1997:i:4:p:667-683

DOI: 10.1177/001979399705000407

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