Abstract

The IAB will evaluate two new job creation programmes (§16e and §16i SGB II) for the long-term unemployed, to fulfil its statutory duty of studying the impact of federal labour market policy according to §55 SGB II. Module 3a of the evaluation project analyses the effects of programme participation on employability and social participation. For this purpose, the IAB will conduct two novel panel surveys, since the administrative data of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) do not contain information beyond the mere integration of individuals into the labour market.   A major challenge for Module 3a is to generate feasible and meaningful outcome variables for the concepts of “employability” and “social participation”. Fortunately, the IAB can draw on experience from the Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security (PASS). For instance, earlier work for the PASS has identified health, qualification, skills, and search behaviour as relevant dimensions of employability. Furthermore, social participation has been measured in the PASS via questions on life satisfaction, social networks, and material deprivation.   The sampling is based on administrative data from the BA and is conducted separately for each programme. As a first step, a random sample is drawn from the participants of programme §16e or §16i SGB II (treatment group), respectively. As a second step, a control group is drawn from the eligible population that does not participate at the respective programme. For reasons of efficiency and cost, however, the selection of control persons is not at random, but based on the probability of participation predicted from the administrative data. The aim is to link each person in the treatment group with several control persons who are very similar with regard to the probability of participation in the respective programme. All study participants will be surveyed by telephone (CATI) in three (§16e) or four (§16i) panel waves. Causal effects will be estimated based on administrative data and the survey data using matching methods.