Active Labor Market Policies in Poland: Human Capital Enhancement, Stigmatization or Benefit Churning

Jochen Kluve (), Hartmut Lehmann () and Christoph Schmidt

No 30, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper provides micro-econometric evidence on the effectiveness of Active Labor Market Policies (ALMP) in Poland. We sketch the theoretical framework of matching estimators as a substitute for randomization in labor market programs. Using retrospective data from the 18th wave of the Polish Labor Force Survey we implement a conditional difference-in-differences matching estimator of treatment effects. Treatment and control groups are matched over individual observable characteristics and pre-treatment labor market histories to minimize bias from unobserved heterogeneity. We also require that observations on controls are from the same regional labor market and from an identical phase of the transition cycle. Considering as the outcome a multinomial variable of labor market status, our first important finding suggests that training of men and women has a positive effect on the employment probability. For men public works and intervention works have negative treatment effects, while participation in intervention works does not affect women’s employment probabilities. We attribute the negative treatment effects for men to benefit churning rather than to stigmatization of intervention and public works participants.

Keywords: difference-in-difference matching estimator; employment probabilities; treatment effects; transition cycle; labor markets policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C41 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 1999-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (92)

Published - published in: Journal of Comparative Economics, 1999, 27 (1), 61-89

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Related works:
Journal Article: Active Labor Market Policies in Poland: Human Capital Enhancement, Stigmatization, or Benefit Churning? (1999)
Working Paper: Active Labour Market Policies in Poland: Human Capital Enhancement, Stigmatization or Benefit Churning? (1999)
Working Paper: Active Labor Market Policies in Poland: Human Capital Enhancement, Stigmatization or Benefit Churning? (1998)
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