Abstract

German workers who are working on a fixed-term contract or given notice are obliged to register as job seekers if possible three months before their last day in employment. In this context, the German institutional settings envisage registered job seekers to meet a caseworker even before actually losing their job. According to the job search theory, it is unclear whether an early meeting with a caseworker helps to prevent or shorten time in unemployment. This project uses a randomized controlled trial to investigate this topic. Newly registered job seekers are randomly assigned to a treatment and a control group. Job seekers of the treatment group receive the offer to have a first meeting with their caseworker while still being employed, whereas job seekers of the control group receive the offer to meet their caseworker not before the first day of unemployment. A comparison between the outcomes of treated and controls will measure the average effect of the early meeting offered as well as the effect of the actual early meeting with a caseworker for the compliers.