Public Employment Programs Research Articles

Social Security and Gender Justice in South Africa: Policy Gaps and Opportunities

AbstractIf gender is neglected in the design and implementation of mainstream social welfare models, unequal social and economic outcomes for men and women tend to be reproduced. This paper contributes to debates about how social protection can contribute to promoting gender equality by considering the gendered redistributive and transformative effects of three types of social security instruments in South Africa: social assistance, unemployment insurance and public employment programmes. All the instruments have some pro-poor and gendered design innovations. The Child Support Grant has had better outcomes than the other instruments, but redistributive and transformative gender effects across the social security spectrum are disappointing. Limited social transformation is largely due to implementation inefficiencies and unresponsive institutions. To serve both economically redistributive and socially transformative ends, gender-sensitive synergies between social security instruments and with other multisectoral interventions could be strengthened, such as access to social services (especially quality child care) and access to basic services (such as water, electricity, transport and internet services).

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ACTIVE LABOR MARKET POLICIES: A META‐ANALYSIS

AbstractThis paper provides a meta‐analysis of microeconometric evaluation studies on the effectiveness of active labor market policies. The analysis is built upon a systematically assembled data set of causal impact estimates from 57 experimental and quasi‐experimental studies, providing 654 estimates published between January 1990 and December 2017. We distinguish between the short and longer term impacts in our analysis; at 6, 12, 24, and 36 months after program start. After correcting for publication bias and country‐specific macroeconomic characteristics, subsidized labor and public employment programs have negative short‐term impacts, which gradually turn positive in the longer run. Schemes with enhanced services including job‐search assistance and training programs do not have these negative short‐term effects, and stay positive from 6 until 36 months after program start.

Can public works increase equilibrium wages? Evidence from India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee

We estimate the impact of the world’s largest public works program, India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), on agricultural wages. NREGS was rolled out across India in three distinct phases, and this phased introduction is used to identify difference-in-difference estimates of the program effect. Using monthly data on wage rates from the period 2000–2011 in 209 districts across 18 Indian states, we include district-specific fixed effects and trends to control for differences in wage rates in the absence of the program. We find that, on average, the program boosted the growth rate of real daily agricultural wages by 4.3% per year. The effect of the scheme is more consistent with an increase in the growth rate of wages than with a discontinuous jump in wages. The effect was concentrated in some states and in the agricultural peak season, appears to have been gender-neutral and was biased towards unskilled labor. Since many of the world’s poorest depend on casual agricultural labor for their livelihood, while at the same time minimum-wage legislation is unlikely to be effective in many developing countries, we argue that rural public employment programs constitute a potentially important anti-poverty policy tool.

Examining the Role of ICT on Financial Inclusion in World's Biggest Public Employment Programme in Uttarakhand, India

This study examines how deployment of ICT in public employment programme is improving egovernance making and helping the workforce to access banking services for receiving their wages. The study draws on field work done among 118 MGNREGA beneficiaries in Chamoli district, located up in the Himalayan State of Uttarakhand. The beneficiaries of the 100 days employment guarantee scheme are finding work only for 36 days. The compulsory routing of wage payments through bank and post offices have enabled inclusion in the banking process, however, these accounts are not being used beyond savings and withdrawals. The study recommends maintaining guaranteed employment to a minimum of 100 days, reducing delays in wage payment to a maximum of two weeks compared to one year at present and introduce multiple layers of checking details of beneficiaries against available personal identification documents to reduce the phenomenon of ghost clients.

Measuring Regional Differences in Labour Market Sensitivity in Hungary

The core of this study is the development of a statistical tool for measuring the regional labour market sensitivity. The goal is to present and apply a general index, which can be used in other disciplines as well. An additional objective is the evaluation of the social and economic processes affecting the labour market, and the identification of highly vulnerable areas exposed to crises. In this study, sensitivity means the relative volume of responsiveness to the labour market changes in the examined areas. Former spatial statistical methods have tried to identify the regional differentiating factors of unemployment; however, they did not reveal the extent to which the villages and towns were exposed to economic and employment changes. A new index provides this opportunity. It evaluates the processes of regional unemployment, the degree of exposure to the crisis and the employment mechanisms with particular regard to public employment programmes. The research explores and evaluates the specific labour market vulnerability and macro-regional structure of the settlements of Hungary with the help of the developed index. Thus at least three new elements of the national spatial structure will be revealed which enables us to prepare for socio-economic changes similar to the latest crisis.

Wage and Earnings from Participation in MGNREGA Works in Jharkhand

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (2005) is regarded as largest public employment programme in the world. As per the official parlance MGNREGA belongs to the core of core programmes of Government of India. Majority of participants of MGNREGA are poor and vulnerable sections of the society. ₹480 billion has been allocated for the programme in Central government budget in 2017–18. However, in recent years there are criticisms on the government to weaken and dilute the key features of the programme to the detriment of the interest of poor labourers. On the other hand many see the programme as unnecessary drag on public money. In this context this article aims to study recent trend and patterns of participation, employment and income generation from MGNREGA among casual labourers in Jharkhand which happens to be one of poor and tribal dominated states of India.

Evaluating Public Employment Programs with Field Experiments: A Survey of American Evidence

Research in the 1970s based on observational data provided evidence consistent with predictions from economic theory that paying unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to involuntarily jobless workers prolongs unemployment. However, some scholars also reported estimates that the additional time spent in subsidized job search was productive. That is, UI receipt tended to raise reemployment wages after work search among the unemployed. A series of field experiments in the 1980s investigated positive incentives to overcome the work disincentive effects of UI. These were followed by experiments in the 1990s that evaluated the effects of restrictions on UI eligibility through stronger work search requirements and alternative uses of UI. The new century has seen some related field experiments in employment policy, and reexamination of the earlier experimental results. This paper reviews the experimental evidence and considers it in the context of the current federal-state UI system.

Interventions to improve the labour market outcomes of youth: A systematic review of training, entrepreneurship promotion, employment services and subsidized employment interventions

Interventions to improve the labour market outcomes of youth: A systematic review of training, entrepreneurship promotion, employment services and subsidized employment interventions

The Community Work Programme: potentials and problems

This article provides a detailed and critically reflective ‘insider’ account of the origins and development of a Community Work Programme as a public employment programme intervention. The article explores the significant potential of such a Community Work Programme to reduce unemployment and improve socio-economic livelihoods for programme participants, and its potential to model public/private alignment across sectors that complements what can be accomplished within the budgetary constraints of the central government alone. It also describes the challenges of programme implementation as a social policy intervention, arising in part from the difficulties of scaling up successful pilots to create a nationwide programme. The article demonstrates real achievements but also the difficulties of engagement with the state by non-profit organisations, and the difficulties of forging sustainable partnerships between communities and government around shared goals.

Right to Work? Assessing India’s Employment Guarantee Scheme in Bihar

There is a persistent debate in development economics about entitlement-based versus marketbased approaches to poverty reduction. As an example of a rights-based programme, this book focuses on a large-scale employment guarantee scheme. Introduced in 2006, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is the largest anti-poverty public employmentprogramme in India, and possibly the world. It guarantees 100 days of employment per year toevery rural household. By design, the scheme covers all households in possession of a job card(irrespective of social status); compensates if employment is not provided; pays a piece-rateindexed to inflation; and gives men and women equal wages. This book looks at the differentcomponents/elements of the programme from the demand side as well as the supply side. Theauthors meticulously point out that success depends on several factors, and that failure withrespect to the smallest of elements – such as knowledge about entitlement wage – tends toweigh heavily on the outcomes.

Local funds and political competition: Evidence from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in India is one of the largest public employment programs in the developing world. It was introduced by the central government led by Indian National Congress (INC). While it's implementation is, in principle, based on demand for work from households, we investigate how political competition affects intra district allocation of funds under the scheme. Using longitudinal data on funds allocated to blocks and elections held for block councils, we find that greater amount of funds were allocated to blocks where INC had lower seat share. Further, we address the issue of endogeneity by focusing on a subsample of blocks where the aggregate vote share of INC was close to that of it's rivals. Our results suggest that 1.5 percentage point more funds were approved for blocks that had 1 percentage point lower seat share for INC. We also provide a mechanism for the effect by showing that the results are only true when the MP of the district, a member of the body that approves the block fund allocation, is from INC.

Full Employment as a Permanent Policy Response to Poverty

Rising inequality and concomitant economic insecurity and poverty is a continuing problem in the United States today. Enacting full employment policies would resolve this problem and would serve as a viable poverty reduction strategy. Using a more accurate measure of unemployment such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6 measure would reveal the true unemployment rate. This article provides different strategies, historical and more recent, for enacting full employment with a living wage, particularly the enactment of a permanent national public service employment program administered by the states through the TANF Emergency Fund. Public sector employment expansion in the green or clean economy would benefit the urban unemployed the most. To achieve these ends, social workers, unions and community activists will need to collaborate. Finally, the Federal Reserve should review the history of the relationship between unemployment and inflation rates and develop a more accurate formula for attaining full employment while keeping inflation low.

The Effects of Youth Employment: Evidence from New York City Lotteries *

Abstract Programs to encourage labor market activity among youth, including public employment programs and wage subsidies like the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, can be supported by three broad rationales. They may (i) provide contemporaneous income support to participants; (ii) encourage work experience that improves future employment and/or educational outcomes of participants; and/or (iii) keep participants “out of trouble.” We study randomized lotteries for access to the New York City (NYC) Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), the largest summer youth employment program in the United States, by merging SYEP administrative data on 294,100 lottery participants to IRS data on the universe of U.S. tax records; to New York State administrative incarceration data; and to NYC administrative cause of death data. In assessing the three rationales, we find that (i) SYEP participation causes average earnings and the probability of employment to increase in the year of program participation, with modest contemporaneous crowdout of other earnings and employment; (ii) SYEP participation causes a modest decrease in average earnings for three years following the program and has no impact on college enrollment; and (iii) SYEP participation decreases the probability of incarceration and decreases the probability of mortality, which has important and potentially pivotal implications for analyzing the net benefits of the program.

The Effects of Youth Employment: Evidence from New York City Summer Youth Employment Program Lotteries

Programs to encourage labor market activity among youth, including public employment programs and wage subsidies like the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, can be supported by three broad rationales. They may: (1) provide contemporaneous income support to participants; (2) encourage work experience that improves future employment and/ or educational outcomes of participants; and/or (3) keep participants “out of trouble.” We study randomized lotteries for access to New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), the largest summer youth employment program in the U.S., by merging SYEP administrative data on 294,580 lottery participants to IRS data on the universe of U.S. tax records. In assessing the three rationales, we find that: (1) SYEP participation causes average earnings and the probability of employment to increase in the year of program participation, with modest crowd out of other earnings and employment ; (2) SYEP participation causes a moderate decrease in average earnings for three years following the program and has no impact on college enrollment; and (3) SYEP participation decreases the probability of incarceration and decreases the probability of mortality , which has important and potentially pivotal implications for analyzing the net benefits of the program.

Effectiveness of sequences of One-Euro-Jobs for welfare recipients in Germany

Empirical evidence reveals that German welfare recipients often participate in multiple active labour market programmes (ALMPs). However, evidence on the effectiveness of ALMPs exists mostly for single ALMP participations so far. This article evaluates the sequential participation in ALMPs for welfare recipients in Germany based on comprehensive administrative data to control for dynamic selection that arises in the evaluation of sequences. Using a dynamic causal model and an inflow sample of welfare recipients, the article analyses the effects of sequences of a public employment programme called One-Euro-Jobs on labour market outcomes. For female participants in One-Euro-Jobs in the first period, especially in West Germany, the results imply that participating in two consecutive One-Euro-Jobs compared with receiving only welfare benefits for two consecutive periods better facilitates integration into regular employment. Moreover, taking part in a One-Euro-Job directly after entry into welfare receipt is also more effective for participants in One-Euro-Jobs in the first period than taking part in a One-Euro-Job in a later period, especially for East German men (although not for West German women). However, I also find evidence of so-called programme careers and stepwise integration into regular employment.

Preventing crime and violence through work and wages: The impact of the CommunityWork Programme

The article offers an analysis of the potential impact of the Community Work Programme (CWP) on crime and violence. The CPW is a public employment programme that was formally established within the government in 2010. The CWP may have an impact on crime and violence through a number of different ‘pathways’. One of these, the focus of this article, is through wages provided to the participants, 75% of whom are women. Notable here is the likely impact of these wages on the households of participants, including on their children and intimate partner relations. Whereas the CWP may have a beneficial impact on children in a household, there appears to be the potential that the CWP may aggravate the risk of violence, particularly for female participants who have unemployed partners. The article argues that if the crime prevention potential of the CWP is to be optimised, this motivates for providing ‘gender training’ to participants who may be at risk of intimate partner violence. In addition, limited male participation may reinforce a pattern of male exclusion, motivating for increasing the participation of men within the CWP.

Preventing crime and violence through work and wages: The impact of the CommunityWork Programme

The article offers an analysis of the potential impact of the Community Work Programme (CWP) on crime and violence. The CPW is a public employment programme that was formally established within the government in 2010. The CWP may have an impact on crime and violence through a number of different ‘pathways’. One of these, the focus of this article, is through wages provided to the participants, 75% of whom are women. Notable here is the likely impact of these wages on the households of participants, including on their children and intimate partner relations. Whereas the CWP may have a beneficial impact on children in a household, there appears to be the potential that the CWP may aggravate the risk of violence, particularly for female participants who have unemployed partners. The article argues that if the crime prevention potential of the CWP is to be optimised, this motivates for providing ‘gender training’ to participants who may be at risk of intimate partner violence. In addition, limited male participation may reinforce a pattern of male exclusion, motivating for increasing the participation of men within the CWP.

Fiscal Policy Implications for Labor Market Outcomes in Middle-Income Countries

Many governments have initiated public employment programs or expanded the existing ones in response to high unemployment. However, in many middle-income countries, a relatively large government coexists with persistently high unemployment. This paper explores the question of whether public employment gives rise to distortions in the labor market in the medium to long-run. Our findings do not provide any evidence that public employment reduces unemployment rate. The analysis in this paper shows that large public employment does significantly affect labor market outcomes in middle-income countries and leads to job destruction in the private sector. The extent of the impact is largely influenced by the degree of substitutability between public and private production and the size of the rents in the public sector.

Fiscal Policy Implications for Labor Market Outcomes in Middle-Income Countries

Many governments have initiated public employment programs or expanded the existing ones in response to high unemployment. However, in many middle-income countries, a relatively large government coexists with persistently high unemployment. This paper explores the question of whether public employment gives rise to distortions in the labor market in the medium to long-run. Our findings do not provide any evidence that public employment reduces unemployment rate. The analysis in this paper shows that large public employment does significantly affect labor market outcomes in middle-income countries and leads to job destruction in the private sector. The extent of the impact is largely influenced by the degree of substitutability between public and private production and the size of the rents in the public sector.

The role and importance of public employment programmes: the case of Hajdúböszörmény micro-region, Hungary

Public employment programmes are important tools for reducing unemployment and its impacts. The Hungarian National Public Employment Programme, launched on 1 January 2011, includes micro-regional start-work model programmes. A questionnaire survey designed to assess whether these programmes can help to re-integrate jobless people into the labour market was conducted among 300 programme participants in the (LAU1) micro-region of Hajduboszormeny in north-east Hungary. Most respondents have, at most, basic education. The majority have already participated in public employment programmes three or more times, often over a period of more than two years. Most respondents with higher education would like to return to the primary labour market, but many less educated persons would accept further public employment. Very few want to work in the ‘black’ economy. Most did not take part in any actions to improve their employability, either through the programmes or on their own initiative. Many feel that they have developed new competences but do not believe that their career prospects have been improved. Their self-esteem has increased and they can see the value to society of the work they have been doing. In conclusion, the current public employment system seems to be reducing ‘black’ labour but not substantially improving the employability of participants. Training combined with public employment should be obligatory. The programmes should be maintained as long as the private sector cannot provide enough job opportunities. Their activities increase the amount of available work in the micro-region and have positive benefits for the micro-region community as well.