Hiring subsidies and temporary work agencies

Natalia Bermúdez-Barrezueta (), Sam Desiere () and Giulia Tarullo ()
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Natalia Bermúdez-Barrezueta: UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)
Sam Desiere: Ghent University
Giulia Tarullo: UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

No 2025003, LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: This paper evaluates a hiring subsidy for lower-educated youths in Flanders (Belgium) that reduced labour costs by approximately 13% for a period of two years, starting in 2016. Using a donut Regression Discontinuity Design, we find no evidence that the subsidy improved the job finding rate of eligible job seekers in 2016-19, a period marked by a tight labour market. We then investigate the role of temporary work agencies, which disproportionately employ the target group and obtain 25% to 34% of the subsidies. Using Difference-in-Differences regressions, we demonstrate that agencies did not raise wages of eligible agency workers in response to the policy. Remarkably, despite a 3.3% labour cost reduction, full-time equivalent employment of eligible workers in these agencies decreased by 9.2% over the three years following the reform. Our findings highlight how an active labour market policy affects agency employment.

Keywords: hiring subsidy; temporary work agencies; youth employment; ALMP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J08 J23 J53 J64 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-01-13
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvir:2025003

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