scholarly journals Do Active Labour Market Policies Promote the Subjective Well-Being of the Unemployed? Evidence from the UK National Well-Being Programme

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 1281-1298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Sage
2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
FLAVIA FOSSATI

AbstractThe literature addressing attitudes about social policy and the welfare state has been telling us for decades that welfare interventions are supported by those individuals who benefit from a specific measure. The diffusion of ‘demanding’ active labour market policies (ALMPs), however, challenges this relationship. Using a novel dataset, I analyse which individual- and country-level factors explain public support for demanding ALMPs in five Western European countries. The results show that labour market risk and ideological orientation influence public attitudes towards these ALMPs. Thereby, unemployed individuals sympathising with the political right are more strongly opposed to demanding measures than employed individuals with the same political preferences. Moreover, aggregate support is found to be correlated with the country's ALMP legacy, varying from high levels in Germany and the UK to low levels in Denmark and France. The findings suggest that most ALMPs are in fact implemented despite the opposition of their beneficiaries.


2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Vlandas

There are competing theoretical expectations and conflicting empirical results concerning the impact of partisanship on spending on active labour market policies (ALMPs). This paper argues that one should distinguish between different ALMPs. Employment incentives and rehabilitation programmes incentivize the unemployed to accept jobs. Direct job creation reduces the supply of labour by creating non-commercial jobs. Training schemes raise the human capital of the unemployed. Using regression analysis this paper shows that the positions of political parties towards these three types of ALMPs are different. Party preferences also depend on the welfare regime in which parties are located. In Scandinavia, left-wing parties support neither employment incentives nor direct job creation schemes. In continental and Liberal welfare regimes, left-wing parties oppose employment incentives and rehabilitation programmes to a lesser extent and they support direct job creation. There is no impact of partisanship on training. These results reconcile the previously contradictory findings concerning the impact of the Left on ALMPs.


2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaap de Koning

Active labour market policies: more effective than is often assumed Active labour market policies: more effective than is often assumed Active labour market policy aims at improving the functioning of the labour market. By providing employers and jobseekers with labour market information and job mediation and applying specific reintegration measures to the unemployed, it tries to improve the matching between vacancies and jobseekers, to reduce the level of unemployment, to make job chances more equal and to stimulate employment. A review of the international literature shows that a majority of the available studies point to positive effects of active policies on job entry chances. However, there are strong differences between the different types of measures. For incentives for jobseekers (sanctions, bonuses, etc.), job counseling and placement subsidies the evidence for favourable (net) effects is clear. The available studies show mixed results for training. For subsidized (‘artificial’) labour most studies find no effects or negative effects. The results also differ between groups. Active policies seem to be more effective for women than for men, more effective for older persons than for the young and more effective for the disadvantaged than for those with a relative good profile in the labour market. The effects on job entry chances are probably small on average. The latter is also true for the macroeconomic effects. The effects might be bigger if one knew more about the effectiveness of the various measures for different groups. Then a more optimal use of measures might be possible. Evaluation is needed to get this information. However, currently hardly any evaluation research is done in the Netherlands.


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