ᅟ
The public employment service (PES) makes use in many countries of vacancy referrals as to facilitate the matching between unemployed workers and vacancies. Based on a “timing-of-events” approach to control for selective participation, this study evaluates whether this policy instrument enhanced the transition to employment in Flanders (region in northern Belgium). Three referral types are distinguished: (1) referrals actively matched by a caseworker by phone or by e-mail; (2) automatic referrals, in which the match is accomplished by a software without caseworker intervention; and (3) invitations, in which the referral is transmitted to the unemployed in a meeting with a caseworker. All three referral instruments are found to be effective, even many months after the transmission of the referral: the first and third referral types more than triples, respectively, double the transition rate to employment both in short- and long-run, while the automatic referrals enhance this rate by 50% in the first 2 months and double it in the long-run.
JEL Classification
C41, J63, J64, J65, J68
This article summarizes the findings of an explorative research project commissioned by the European Commission's Third Poverty Programme, on inefficiencies and undesired side-effects of targeted labour market policies.These 'pitfalls and dilemmas' are discussed in relation to three types of socioeconomic effects that are expected from these polices: 1 distributional effects: a number of explicit or implicit mechanisms of discrimination against vulnerable groups in existing policies are described: legal or administrative barriers to entry, creaming off mechanisms, inconsistencies between measures.Even positive discrimination in favour of the most vulnerable groups appears to have its drawbacks. The article concludes that the abolition of existing discriminations, and the establishment of guaranteed services to all unemployed people are to be preferred over positive discrimination.2 labour market outcomes for beneficiaries: low or even negative performance of policies are manifested in failures to meet the needs of unemployed people or of the labour market, segmentation of provision, or other kinds of 'shortcomings' including stigmatization. Remedies are sought in a better design of policies for particularly disadvantaged groups, a rigorous application of the 'routine' principle, and partnerships between public agencies, social partners and local non-profit organizations.3 macro-economic effects: it is argued that 'active labour market policies' are on the whole more effective at redistributing opportunities than at creating employment. In a situation of excess labour supply, one can hardly expected supplyside measures to restore the equilibrium. Therefore, activating labour supply should to in tandem with more structural policies. R6sum6 PIÈGES ET DILEMMES DANS LES S POLITIQUES DU MARCHÉ DU TRAVAIL V I S -I -V I DES GROUPES S DÉFAVORISÉS -ET COMMENT LES S EV ITER Cet article risume les risultats d'un projet de recherche exploratoire réaltsé dans le cadre du trolslème programme pauvreti de la Communauti sure les effets non déslrés et entrainant une mefficaelté des polrtlques ciblies du marche du travail.Ces 'peges et dilemmes' sont dlscutés en fonction de trois types d'effets soao-economrques qui sont attendus de telles polrtlques.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.