The international literature on active labour market programmes has generated inconsistent and confusing, but generally pessimistic, conclusions regarding their impact on the employment prospects of participants. This paper argues that much of this confusion is due to a general lack of attention to qualitative differences between programmes. The paper develops a typology of active labour market programmes, differentiating between training and employment measures on the basis of their orientation to the labour market and argues that programmes with a strong orientation to the market are more likely to improve the job prospects of participants than those characterised by weak market linkages. That hypothesis is tested using the results of a survey of young participants in labour market programmes in Ireland. The analysis shows that programmes with strong linkages to the labour market both enhance the employment prospects of their participants and increase their earnings, even when we take account of relevant individual characteristics such as education and previous labour market experience.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
cited in Bjoerklund, A. (1993),The Swedish Experience, pp. 243-264 in K. Jensen and P.K. Madsen (eds.), Measuring Labour Market Measures, Copenhagen: Ministry of Labour.
2.
cited in Bjoerklund, A. (1993), The Swedish Experience, pp. 243-264 in K. Jensen and P.K Madsen, (eds.), Measuring Labour Market Measures, Copenhagen: Ministry of Labour.
3.
Bassi, L. (1984) `Estimating the effect of training programs with non-random selection', Review of Economics and Statistics, 66, pp. 36-43.
4.
Becker, H. (1975) Human Capital, New York: Columbia University Press.
5.
Breen, R. (1991) Education, Employment and Training in the Youth Labour Market, ESRI General Research Series No. 152. Dublin: ESRI
6.
Breen, R. and Halpin, B. (1989) Subsidising jobs: An Evaluation of the Employment Incentive Scheme, ESRI General Research Series No.144. Dublin: ESRI.
7.
Burtless, G. (1985) `Are targeted wage subsidies harmful? Evidence from a wage voucher experiment', Industrial and Labor Relations Review, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 105-114.
8.
Calmfors, L. (1994) `Active Labour Market Policy and Unemployment A Framework for the Analysis of Crucial Design Features', OECD Economic Studies22.
9.
Card, D. and Sullivan D. (1988) `Measuring the Effect of Subsidised Training Programmes on Movements in and out of Employment', Econometrica, vol. 56, pp. 497-530.
10.
Couch, K.A. (1992) `New Evidence on the Long-Term Effects of Employment Training Programs', Journal of Labour Economics, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 380-388.
11.
de Koning, J. (1993) `Measuring the Placement Effects of Two Wage-Subsidy Schemes for the Long-Term Unemployed', Empirical Economics, vol. 18, pp.447-468.
12.
Dolton, P., Makepeace, G.G. and Treble, J. (1994) `The Youth Training Scheme and the School-to-Work Transition', Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 46, pp. 629-657.
13.
Erhel, C., Gautie, J., Gazier, B. and Morel, S. (1996) `Job Opportunities for the Hard-to-place', in G. Schmid, J. O'Reilly and K. Schoemann 1996, International Handbook of Labour Market Policy Evaluation, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
14.
Heckman, J. and Robb, R. (1986) `Alternative Identifying Assumptions in Econometric Models of Selection Bias', Advances in Econometrics, vol. 5, pp. 243-287.
15.
Korpi, T. (1994) `Employment stability following unemployment: Evidence of the effect of manpower programmes among youth', in Escaping Unemployment: Studies in the Individual Consequences of Unemployment and Labour Market Policy, Stockholm: Swedish Institute for Social Research, 24.
16.
Main, B. and Shelly, M. (1990) `The effectiveness of the Youth Training Scheme as a Manpower Policy', Economica, vol. 57, pp. 495-514.
OECD (1994) The OECD Jobs Study, Part II: The Adjustment Potential of the Labour Market, Paris: OECD.
19.
OECD (1993) `Active Labour Market Policies: Assessing Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Effects', in Employment Outlook, July. OECD: Paris.
20.
OECD (1991) Evaluating Labour Market and Social Programmes: The State of a Complex Art, Paris: OECD.
21.
OECD (1990) Labour Market Policies for the Nineties, Paris: OECD.
22.
O'Connell P. and McGinnity, F. (1997) Working Schemes? Active Labour Market Policy in Ireland, Aldershot: Ashgate.
23.
O'Connell, P. and Sexton, J. (1994) `Labour Market Developments in Ireland, 1971-1993', in S. Cantillon, J. Curtis and J. Fitz Gerald (eds.), Economic Perspectives for the Medium Term, Dublin: ESRI.
24.
O'Higgins, N. (1994) `YTS, Employment and Sample Selection Bias', Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 46, pp. 605-628.
25.
Park, N., Riddell, W and Power, R. (1993), An Evaluation of UI-Sponsored Training, Ottowa, Canada: Human Resources Development Canada Ltd.
26.
Payne, J. (1990) Adult Off-the-job Skills Training, Employment Department Research and Development Series No. 57.
27.
Payne, J., Lissenburgh, S., White, M. and Payne, C. (1996) Employment Training and Employment Action: An Evaluation by the Matched Comparison Method, Department for Education and Employment Research Series No. 74, Sheffield: DE E.
28.
Sexton, J. and O'Connell, P. (1997) Labour Market Studies: Ireland, Luxembourg: Commission of the European Union.
29.
Thurow, L. (1975) Generating Inequality: Mechanisms of Inequality in the US Economy, London: Macmillan.
30.
Torp, H. (1994) `The Impact of Training on Employment: Assessing a Norwegian Labour Market Programme', Scandinavian Journal of Economics, vol. 96, no. 4, pp. 531-550.
31.
Whifield, K. and Bourlakis, C. (1991) `An Empirical Analysis of YTS, Employment and Earnings', Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 42-56.
