Job search requirements for older unemployed: Transitions to employment, early retirement and disability benefits

Arbeitspapier

In this paper, we use a recent policy change in the Netherlands to study how changes in search requirements for the older unemployed affect their transition rates to employment, early retirement and sickness/disability benefits. The reform, becoming effective on January 1st 2004, required the elderly to formally report their job search efforts to the employment office in order to avoid a (temporary) cut in benefits. Before the new law was passed, unemployed were allowed to stop all search activity at the moment they turned 57.5. Estimating various duration models using difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity approaches, we find that for several groups of individuals that were affected by the policy change, the stricter search requirements did significantly increase their entry rate into employment. However, we also find evidence of a higher outflow to sickness/disability insurance schemes, a presumably unwanted side-effect of the policy change.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 5442

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models: Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models; Quantile Regressions; Social Interaction Models ; Retirement; Retirement Policies ; Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search ; Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies: Public Policy
• Subject: duration analysis ; policy evaluation ; search effort ; substitution ; Arbeitslosigkeit ; Arbeitsuche ; Ältere Arbeitskräfte ; Beschäftigungseffekt ; Niederlande

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bloemen, Hans ; Hochguertel, Stefan ; Lammers, Marloes
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2011

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/45985
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-201104113152
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET