Microeconometric Evaluation of the Active Labour Market Policy in Switzerland

Michael Gerfin () and Michael Lechner
Additional contact information
Michael Gerfin: University of Bern

No 154, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In the second part of the 1990’s Switzerland conducted an ambitious active labour market policy (ALMP) encompassing a wide variety of programmes. We evaluate the effects of these programmes on the individual employment probability of potential participants. Our econometric analysis uses unusually informative data originating from administrative unemployment and social security records. We apply a matching estimator adapted for the case of multiple programmes. We find substantial positive effects for one particular programme that is a unique feature of the Swiss ALMP. It consists of a wage subsidy for temporary jobs in the regular labour market that would otherwise not be taken up by the unemployed. We also find large negative effects for traditional employment programmes operated in sheltered labour markets. For training courses the results are mixed.

Keywords: Unemployment; treatment effects; balancing score; matching; evaluation of multiple programmes; Swiss labour market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C40 H43 J64 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 82 pages
Date: 2000-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (78)

Published - published in: Economic Journal, 2002, 112 (482), 854-893

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp154.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: A Microeconometric Evaluation of the Active Labour Market Policy in Switzerland (2002)
Working Paper: A Microeconometric Evaluation of Active Labour Market Policy in Switzerland (2001)
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:iza:izadps:dp154

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().