Active Labor Policy in Germany and Switzerland - a Confrontation (Aktive Arbeitsmarktpolitik in Deutschland Und Der Schweiz - Eine GegenüBerstellung)

Abstract

The active labour market policies in Switzerland and Germany are compared. German and Swiss labour market policies have similar aims, instruments and experienced similar institutional reforms. In Switzerland, an informative administrative database for an evaluation of these policies was made available earlier. The evaluation studies for Switzerland are summarized. Positive effects are found particularly for temporary wage subsidies. These subsidies offer an incentive to accept lower paying jobs. Furthermore, the crucial roles of effect heterogeneity and programme allocation are discussed. By allocating individuals into those programmes with the highest expected benefits, unemployment could be reduced. Such a statistical targeting tool for selecting programmes has been implemented and tested in a pilot study in Switzerland. A similar system is currently developed in Germany. An informative database serves as the foundation for the evaluation and targeting of active labour market policies. Finally, the Swiss and German databases are described.

Keywords: Active labour market policies, evaluation, targeting, statistical treatment rules

JEL Classification: C21, J68