Abstract

This project investigates the extent to which two new types of job creation programs in Germany reach their intended focus groups, consisting of people with major employment impediments. The legal basis for these job creation programs is provided by §§16e und 16i of the German Social Code II. There are only few formal participation criteria for these programs, pertaining particularly to the length of prior benefit receipt and prior durations without employment. However, the policy expectation particularly for §16i is that these criteria will suffice to reach people with additional concurrent employment impediments. Using longitudinal administrative data on unemployed means-tested benefit recipients, descriptive analyses will indicate whether participants’ characteristics correspond to the legally mandated participation criteria. In-depth multivariate analyses will examine the influence of age, qualification, citizenship, household type, disability, and characteristics of prior jobs on participation probabilities. Thus these analyses can provide insight as to whether participants, particularly in §16i, are characterized by further employment impediments in addition to long durations of prior benefit receipt.