Do Active Labor Market Policies Increase Employment

Using panel data for 15 industrial countries, active labor market policies (ALMPs) are shown to have raised employment rates in the business sector in the 1990s, after controlling for many institutions, country-specific effects, and economic variables. Among such policies, direct subsidies to job creation were the most effective. ALMPs also affected employment rates by reducing real wages below levels allowed by technological growth, changes in the unemployment rate, and institutional and other economic factors. However, part of this wage moderation may be linked to a composition effect because policies were targeted to low-paid individuals. Whether ALMPs are cost-effective from a budgetary perspective remains to be determined, but they are certainly not substitutes for comprehensive institutional reforms.

Active labor market policies (ALMPs) are found in almost all countries of the world but differ in amplitude, design, and implementation. Comprising an array of measures, ALMPs can take the form of special support for job searching, training and education for the unemployed, and various other subsidies and job creation activities. While providing a valuable overview of the nature of these policies, this book examines some of the pitfalls and challenges countries face when evaluating them. It also provides a policy framework for designing ALMPs that are permanent yet adaptable instruments to cope with changes linked to globalization. Contents Introduction Historical background of ALMPs Definition and functions of ALMPs Contribution of ALMPs to the objectives of employment creation, security in change, equity and poverty reduction Differences in the utilization of ALMPs: Developed, transition and developing countries Evaluation of ALMPs New trends in ALMPs Conclusions: A framework for the management of change Bibliography

This book presents the proceedings of a conference on labour markets. It advances thinking on new policy measures, such as active labour market policies and measures to "make work pay".

Measures of Active Labor Market Policy - such as training, wage subsidies, public employment measures, and job search assistance - are widely used in European countries to combat unemployment. This study provides novel insight on this important policy issue by discussing the role of the European Commission's Employment Strategy, reviewing the experiences made in European states, and giving the first ever quantitative assessment of the existing cross-country evidence.

This book argues that active labour market policies are necessary to improve the position of the unemployed but have so far performed relatively poorly. The contributing authors seek ways to improve active labour market policy and consider three means of doing so: improving the quality by better targeting and by better-designed measures, more efficient implementation and delivery, and better performance by benchmarking the various implementation agencies involved.

This comprehensive and instructive study examines the relative success or failure of government policies in preventing and alleviating unemployment. Choosing two contrasting cases—West Germany and the United States—Thomas Janoski probes the causes and consequences of two very different orientations toward labor market policy. In West Germany, labor, employers, and government cooperate in the running of a powerful and effective employment service. In the United States, by contrast, one finds little state involvement, organizational confusion, a long history of poor funding, and legislative resistance to intervention in the labor market. In the author's mind, these inadequate policies have had deleterious consequences for the American labor force. Whereas a skilled and flexible labor force exists in West Germany, Americans are poorly trained and barely assisted in finding jobs and training. To remedy this situation Janoski puts forth bold and useful policy recommendations, including the creation of a new organization to operate in national labor markets, the development of technical training programs in high schools, and the creation of a youth service to prevent teenage crime. The Political Economy of Unemployment offers a trenchant examination of how modern industrialized nations deal with the vicissitudes of the economy and how they might develop and implement more effective labor market policies. Meticulously researched, it is an important contribution that policymakers and social scientists will find provocative and useful. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.

The United States lacks a comprehensive and coordinated labor market policy. The components of U.S. labor market policy are derived from the activities and programs of many different agencies and Congressional committees. In addition to the Department of Labor, major aspects of labor market policy are sponsored by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Education, and the Social Security and Veterans Administrations. There is no centralized authority over these various activities and there is no one administrative agency responsible for the implementation of active labor market policies. This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of U.S. labor market policies that are presented and social and political barriers to policy impact are discussed.