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Enabling employment?: Drivers and outcomes of active labour market policies in comparative perspective
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7517-4756
2019 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This thesis includes three empirical studies that analyse driving forces and outcomes of active labour market policies (ALMP) in comparative perspective. Whereas previous comparative research has largely relied on broad conceptualisations of ALMP, often considering policies such as public employment services and training programs as one single type of intervention, the studies in this thesis instead analyse more fine-grained categories and classifications of ALMP. By doing so, the studies contribute with nuance to the discussion of what has shaped labour market policies, and how these influence labour market outcomes.

Study I: This study focuses on determinants of spending on public employment services (PES). Contrary to common assumptions, which state that PES is largely determined by structural factors, the main hypothesis is that partisan politics is a relevant predictor of PES spending. The analysis includes 17 welfare states between 1985 and 2011. The results indicate that partisan politics and electoral competition are related to the development of PES spending, but that the turn to activation in many welfare states in the late 1990s reduced the salience of partisan politics.

Study II: This study analyses whether different types of active labour market policies are related to reduced unemployment, and especially if there is evidence for interdependencies between policies. The study distinguishes between public employment services (PES), training, and job creation programs. PES is singled out as a crucial factor that mediates the effects of other labour market policies, both active and passive. The study examines 19 welfare states between 1985 and 2012 and the results indicate that training programs reduce unemployment in the short run, whereas long-term effects are less apparent for all policy types. Increased investment in PES is found to strengthen the impact of training and job creation programs.

Study III: This study examines the link between active labour market policies and transitions to employment from unemployment and inactivity across the European Union between 2003 and 2013. The study distinguishes between three types of interventions: core programs, directed towards the registered unemployed; peripheral programs, targeting the inactive part of the working age population; and mixed programs, targeting both groups. The results indicate that ALMP have beneficial effects on employment transitions among both the unemployed and the inactive, but that effects differ depending on the type of intervention. Unemployed seem to benefit from increased efforts on ALMP regardless of the type of intervention, whereas the inactive seem to have increased chances to transition into employment if programs target both groups, but not if interventions solely target the inactive.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Department of Sociology, Stockholm University , 2019. , p. 28
Series
Swedish Institute for Social Research, ISSN 0283-8222 ; 101
Keywords [en]
active labour market policy, unemployment, employment, comparative welfare state research, social policy
National Category
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-162129ISBN: 978-91-7797-488-8 (print)ISBN: 978-91-7797-489-5 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-162129DiVA, id: diva2:1266210
Public defence
2019-01-25, William-Olssonsalen, Geovetenskapens hus, Svante Arrhenius väg 14, Stockholm, 10:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 1385803Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 1056410
Note

At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.

Available from: 2018-12-19 Created: 2018-11-27 Last updated: 2022-02-26Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Determinants of public employment services: exploring the relationship between benefit conditionality and partisan politics
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Determinants of public employment services: exploring the relationship between benefit conditionality and partisan politics
2021 (English)In: Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, ISSN 2169-9763, E-ISSN 2169-978X, Vol. 37, no 2, p. 142-158Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The purpose of this study is to analyse determinants of resources devoted to public employment services (PES). It has proven difficult to disentangle ‘carrots’ (placement and services) from ‘sticks’ (sanctions and monitoring) when tracking the development of PES spending. This has contributed to ambivalence concerning the role of partisan politics, especially since welfare states have been argued to increasingly emphasize the ‘sticks’ aspect of the PES, irrespective of ideological orientation. This suggests that the role of partisan politics should be analysed together with ‘demanding’ activation, which is made possible with novel data on unemployment benefit conditionality. The analysis includes 16 welfare states and results indicate that left and secular centre-right parties are associated with increased resources devoted to PES, but that effects of partisan politics are contingent on the form and extent of benefit conditionality. Increased conditionality is associated with higher PES spending, thus nuancing the cost-containment argument for activation.

Keywords
Public Employment Services, Active Labour Market Policy, Social Policy, Comparative Analysis, Partisan Politics
National Category
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-162127 (URN)10.1017/ics.2020.34 (DOI)
Available from: 2018-11-25 Created: 2018-11-25 Last updated: 2022-02-26Bibliographically approved
2. Reducing unemployment? Examining the interplay between active labour market policies
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Reducing unemployment? Examining the interplay between active labour market policies
2021 (English)In: Social Policy & Administration, ISSN 0144-5596, E-ISSN 1467-9515, Vol. 55, no 1, p. 1-17Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Active labour market policies (ALMP) are important tools that welfare states utilize to influence the labour market. This study analyses the macroeconomic effects of different types of ALMP spending on aggregate unemployment rates, and especially if there is evidence of interdependencies between policies. The types of policies scrutinized are public employment services (PES), training programs, public job creation and subsidized employment, where the PES is singled out as a crucial factor that moderates the effects of other types of labour market programs. The study examines 19 welfare states between 1985 and 2013, using error correction modelling to separate between short‐ and long‐term effects. The results indicate that PES, training and subsidized employment reduce unemployment in the short‐run, whereas PES and wage subsidies are associated with reduced unemployment when considering long‐term effects. However, PES is found to have indirect effects on other policy types and increased spending on PES is shown to reinforce long‐term effects of training programs.

Keywords
active labour market policy, comparative analysis, social policy, unemployment
National Category
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-162128 (URN)10.1111/spol.12606 (DOI)000530015600001 ()
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 1056410Swedish Research Council, 1385803
Available from: 2018-11-25 Created: 2018-11-25 Last updated: 2022-02-26Bibliographically approved
3. Moving targets: Target groups of active labour market policies and transitions to employment in Europe
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Moving targets: Target groups of active labour market policies and transitions to employment in Europe
2020 (English)In: International Journal of Social Welfare, ISSN 1369-6866, E-ISSN 1468-2397, Vol. 29, no 3, p. 270-284Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This study drew on recurrent debates related to labour market mobility among the unemployed and those outside the labour force and asked to what extent active labour market policies (ALMP) increase employment in these two groups. By utilising new programme-level data on ALMP, the study analysed the impact of core programmes directed towards registered unemployed; peripheral programmes that target the inactive part of the working age population; and mixed programmes targeting both groups. The programme data were combined with individual-level panel data from the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions and analysed using multilevel analysis. The main results show that both resources devoted to programmes and their size were related to employment transitions. Transitions among the unemployed were mainly associated with spending on core programmes, whereas the inactive seemed to benefit from increased spending on all types of programmes, as well as increased scope of mixed programmes.

Keywords
ALMP, social policy, employment, unemployment, comparative analysis, labour market mobility
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-181847 (URN)10.1111/ijsw.12421 (DOI)000526174500001 ()
Available from: 2020-05-29 Created: 2020-05-29 Last updated: 2022-02-28Bibliographically approved

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