Workfare for the old and long-term unemployed

Arbeitspapier

We estimate the effects of conditioning benefits on program participation among older long-term unemployed workers. We exploit a Swedish reform which reduced UI duration from 90 to 60 weeks for a group of older unemployed workers in a setting where workers who exhausted their benefits received unchanged transfers if they agreed to participate in a work practice program. Our results show that job finding increased as a result of the shorter duration of passive benefits. The time profile of the job-finding effects suggests that the effects are due to deterrence effects during the program-entry phase. We find no evidence of wage reductions, suggesting that the increased job-finding rate was driven by increased search intensity rather than lower reservation wages.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 2012:7

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search ; Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings ; Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies: Public Policy ; Retirement; Retirement Policies
• Subject: Activation ; program evaluation ; duration ; Aktivierende Sozialhilfe ; Ältere Arbeitskräfte ; Wirkungsanalyse ; Schweden

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bennmarker, Helge ; Nordström Skans, Oskar ; Vikman, Ulrika
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)
• (where): Uppsala
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/82249