How effective are hiring subsidies to reduce long-term unemployment among prime-aged jobseekers? Evidence from Belgium

Sam Desiere and Bart Cockx

No 2021024, LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: Hiring subsidies are widely used to create (stable) employment for the long-term unemployed. This paper exploits the abolition of a hiring subsidy targeted at long-term unemployed jobseekers over 45 years of age in Belgium to evaluate its effectiveness in the short and medium run. Based on a triple difference methodology the hiring subsidy is shown to increase the job finding rate by 13% without any evidence of spill-over effects. This effect is driven by a positive effect on individuals with at least a bachelor’s degree. However, the hiring subsidy mainly created temporary short-lived employment: eligible jobseekers were not more likely to find employment that lasted at least twelve consecutive months than ineligible jobseekers.

Keywords: Hiring subsidies; long-term unemployment; prime-aged jobseekers; triple difference; temporary help agencies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H22 J08 J18 J23 J38 J64 J65 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09-21
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https://sites.uclouvain.be/econ/DP/IRES/2021024.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: How Effective Are Hiring Subsidies to Reduce Long-Term Unemployment among Prime-Aged Jobseekers? Evidence from Belgium (2021)
Working Paper: How Effective Are Hiring Subsidies to Reduce Long-Term Unemployment among Prime-Aged Jobseekers? Evidence from Belgium (2021)
Working Paper: How effective are hiring subsidies to reduce long-term unemployment among prime-aged jobseekers? Evidence from Belgium (2021)
Working Paper: How effective are hiring subsidies to reduce long-term unemployment among prime-aged jobseekers? Evidence from Belgium (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvir:2021024

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