Knockin’ on Employment’s Door: The Power of Caseworker Beliefs on Job and Health Outcomes for the Long-Term Unemployed

Søren Albeck Nielsen () and Michael Rosholm
Additional contact information
Søren Albeck Nielsen: Aarhus University

No 17970, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This study examines the impact of caseworker beliefs on employment and health outcomes among long-term unemployed social assistance recipients in Denmark. Exploiting as-if random caseworker assignment, an instrumental variables approach, and a novel measure of "Caseworker Job Orientation", we estimate the effects of caseworkers’ job beliefs regarding their clients. Results indicate that clients assigned to caseworkers with stronger innate job beliefs experience substantial improvements in employment rates, earnings, and educational enrollment. Additionally, positive effects on health are observed, particularly among clients with pre-existing health conditions. These findings underscore the role of caseworker attitudes in shaping client trajectories, offering policy insights into enhancing labor market re-entry strategies.

Keywords: health outcomes; employment outcomes; long-term unemployment; caseworker beliefs; social assistance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C26 C93 I38 J65 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-06
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp17970.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:dp17970

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 ().