Evaluating Avtive Labor Market Policies : Lessons from North America

Abstract

"The paper considers lessons from the North America experience with evaluation of active labor market policies that may have applicability to countries in Europe that are just starting to become active in this area. I consider two dimensions of the evaluation problem. The first dimension is the institutional environment within which evaluation takes place: which individuals, firms and organizations perform the evaluations, who pays for them, and who implicitly or explicitly evaluates the evaluators. I argue that these institutions play an important role in determining the objectivity of evaluation research and thereby its usefulness to policymakers and the public. The second dimension concerns the choice among alternative econometric evaluation methods. I discuss the importance of taking account of the fact that impacts may vary across persons in selecting an econometric method and in interpreting the resulting estimates. I review the costs and benefits of social experiments, and discuss the usefulness of recently fashionable propensity score matching methods. Finally, I consider the importance of general equilibrium effects in evalution research." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Smith, J. (2000): Evaluation aktiver Arbeitsmarktpolitik. Erfahrungen aus Nordamerika. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 33, No. 3, p. 345-356.