Description
Book SynopsisThis 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.
The book also contains detailed descriptions of the new delivery systems in Australia and the Netherlands. These are countries that have privatized a considerable part of the implementation of reintegration services for the unemployed and therefore can provide valuable lessons.
The Evaluation of Active Labour Market Policies will appeal to a wide audience including researchers and scholars of labour economics, sociology and political science. Policymakers within ministries and other public organizations and NGO's dealing with labour market issues and partners, will also find much to engage them within the book.
Table of ContentsContents: Preface 1. Introduction Jaap de Koning PART I: NEW MEASURES 2. Is the Changing Pattern in the Use of Active Labour Market Policies Consistent with what Evaluations Tell Us About their Relative Performance? Jaap de Koning 3. Labour Market Activation Policies: A Comparison of the Use of Tax Credits in Belgium, the UK and the US Gerlinde Verbist, Lieve De Lathouwer and Annelies Roggeman 4. Using the Unemployed as Employment Counsellors: Evaluation of an Initiative to Combat Long-term Unemployment Lennart Delander, Jonas Månsson and Erik Nyberg 5. Recent Developments in Active Labour Market Policies in the UK: The Shifting Focus from Unemployment to Inactivity Nigel Meager 6. Active Labour Market Policies and Social Inclusion: The Case of Flemish Social Enterprises Idesbald Nicaise PART II: PRIVATE–PUBLIC COOPERATION 7. Contracting-out the Public Employment Service: A New Institutional Economics Perspective Oliver Bruttel 8. Between Efficiency and Equality: New Public–Private Arrangements in Employment Assistance for the Unemployment Ludo Struyven 9. The Reform of the Dutch Public Employment Service Jaap de Koning 10. Private versus Public Provision of Placement Services for Hard-to-Place Unemployed: An Impact Evaluation Lennart Delander, Jonas Månsson and Erik Nyberg PART III: BENCHMARKING 11. Benchmarking Employment Services in Germany Hugh Mosley and Kai-Uwe Müller 12. Mediation Services and the Outflow from Short-term Unemployment: Average and Relative Effectiveness of Public Employment Offices Linda van Donk and Jaap de Koning 13. Implementation of Performance Measurement in Public Employment Services in Switzerland Christoph Hilbert 14. Does Quality Matter? Analysing the Effect of Omitted Variables on Optimal Scale: An Application to Swedish Employment Offices Jonas Månsson Index
