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Despite a generous system with high wage subsidies for the long-term unemployed and newly arrived immigrants, many Swedish employers do not make use of this opportunity. This study seeks to increase knowledge of why some employers use the opportunity and others do not. Both register and survey data and combined register and survey data are used. One finding is that employers lack information about the subsidy programmes, although employers that had previously employed subsidised workers were much more likely to employ them in the future. Thus, a key policy question is how to present these subsidies to employers to reduce this barrier. The study also found that some employers hired people from these groups from altruistic motives. However, some employers responded that they would not employ a person entitled to a subsidy, regardless of the content of the subsidy scheme.

In this paper we investigate the effect of difference in outcome definitions on the result of impact evaluations. The Swedish workplace practice programme is evaluated, using matching methods. The key findings are that changing how the outcome is defined has a considerable influence on the results of the impact assessment. From the results of this study, it is clear that differences in evaluation results can arise from differences in how the outcome is defined. The lesson learned is that definition of successful outcomes of labour market policy has to be harmonised to make meaningful comparisons and learn from previous research.

PurposeOne of the most successful labour market programmes in Sweden is a start‐up subsidy programme for job seekers registered at the public employment service. The purpose of this paper is to examine if there are gender differences in outcomes of this programme.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis compares the outcome for female participants of the start‐up programme with that of four other matched groups: male and female non‐participants, male non‐participants, female non‐participants, and male participants.FindingsThe authors' results indicate that females entering the programme have a higher success rate than both female and male non‐participants; however, the impact is less in comparison with male than with female non‐participants. Compared to a matched sample of males in the start‐up scheme, female participants are less successful.Originality/valueThe paper concludes is that it is essential to find evidence regarding which programmes work for which target groups and to find out why effects differ by categories. Such knowledge could be used for fine‐tuning labour market policy programmes.

This article analyses the effects of individual characteristics on the probability of leaving part-time unemployment. The results show that it cannot be unreservedly asserted that part-time work offers access to the core labour market. Among the part-time unemployed, there are great variations in the degree to which they are likely to leave part-time unemployment. A concentration of labour market policy activities on the part-time unemployed who are least likely to succeed in finding full-time employment can, therefore, be expected to have positive consequences from both equity and efficiency points of view. In this respect, part-time unemployed women, persons with work-related disabilities and persons with temporary employment come to the forefront. The article shows that the likelihood of finding a full-time job is certainly not great for persons belonging to these groups. For many of them, part-time job is not a stepping stone but rather a dead end on the labour market.

To evaluate the effects of a universal program, i.e. all targeted get access, is associated with the problem that there are no individuals who represent the hypothetical or counterfactual state of being eligible to the program but not participating in it. In this study of a Swedish universal labor market program - the 'Activity Guarantee' - we show how regional differences in the implementation of instructions on assignment to the program were utilized to create a control group representing the counterfactual state. After having gained access to a treatment and a control group, the authors evaluated the effects of the program on the probability of leaving unemployment and on the duration of unemployment. The effects estimated were statistically significant and indicate a clear positive effect of program participation. ; In dieser Analyse wird das Evaluierungsproblem untersucht, das entsteht, wenn die Effekte eines Programms untersucht werden sollen, das einschränkungslos für alle Mitglieder einer Zielgruppe gilt. Dann nämlich gibt es nicht mehr die Fälle, die den gegenteiligen Zustand repräsentieren, d.h. Anspruchsberechtigte, die nicht an dem Programm teilnehmen. In dieser Studie über ein in diesem Sinne universelles Arbeitsmarktprogramm in Schweden mit dem Titel 'Aktivitäts- Garantie' wird gezeigt, wie regionale Unterschiede bei der Umsetzung der Vorschriften zur Zuweisung in das Programm genutzt werden, um eine Kontrollgruppe zu bilden. Nachdem der Zugang zu den Daten einer Teilnehmergruppe und einer Kontrollgruppe geklärt war, evaluierten die Autoren die Effekte des Programms auf die Abgangswahrscheinlichkeit aus und auf die Dauer der Arbeitslosigkeit. Die geschätzten Effekte waren statistisch signifikant und belegen einen eindeutig positiven Effekt einer Teilnahme an dem Programm.

In politics, broadly stated ambitions such that a service should be available to all are fairly commonplace. However, evaluation access to service in a broader sense is often difficult and expensive. In this study we use a field experiment to investigate if the reception from the business development community differs contingent on the gender of the client. In the experiment, identical email requests were sent to actors in the enterprise promotion system. The result is that response frequency and time were independent of the gender of the sender. However, the male sender was more often given an explicit invitation to book a time slot. To delve further into the responses, we use sentiment analysis, a 'big data' method, to analyse the replies. The analysis reveal that replies to the female sender is more positive. Our conclusion is that even if there are some gender differences we would not consider it to be a systematic discrimination. However, the unconsciousness from public servants should be included in training to increase awareness of this issue.

In politics, broadly stated ambitions such that a service should be available to all are fairly commonplace. However, evaluation access to service in a broader sense is often difficult and expensive. In this study we use a field experiment to investigate if the reception from the business development community differs contingent on the gender of the client. In the experiment, identical email requests were sent to actors in the enterprise promotion system. The result is that response frequency and time were independent of the gender of the sender. However, the male sender was more often given an explicit invitation to book a time slot. To delve further into the responses, we use sentiment analysis, a 'big data' method, to analyse the replies. The analysis reveal that replies to the female sender is more positive. Our conclusion is that even if there are some gender differences we would not consider it to be a systematic discrimination. However, the unconsciousness from public servants should be included in training to increase awareness of this issue. ; Available online 1 February 2018

Public employment services' operations will be massively and profoundly influenced by changes on both the supply and the demand side of the labour market and by such structural impediments as, for example, mismatch between labour demand and supply and low participation rates among vulnerable disadvantaged groups. Rapid and targeted mediation is considered to remain essential for PESs but it has to be combined with attention to provide transitions for individuals facing redundancy and career building. PESs should help job seekers adopt long-term career perspectives, stimulate them to enhance their competencies, give career guidance, give workers support to make smooth career transitions, as well as working with employers to ensure they meet their requirements and encourage and support them to provide career opportunities to more disadvantaged individuals. PESs have to develop their organisation and methods to efficiently and effectively respond to the changing needs in society and the labour market. Far-reaching changes in the tasks, organisational structures, and methods in PESs present corporate governance with great challenges—exacerbated by reduced budgetary resources. The pathway of change that has to be managed will be dotted with demands on decision-makers to choose between alternative courses of action. One of the main thrusts of this paper is to describe cost-benefit analysis, CBA, as a tool to assist decision-makers in choosing. CBA is a tool that judges alternatives in terms of their efficiency as regards the realisation of social objectives, which means that CBA allows policy makers to judge alternatives by their allocative efficiency. This requires taking into account the costs and benefits of the alternatives under consideration. The other main subject of the paper is about measuring productive efficiency which occurs when at a given cost the highest possible output of one service is produced, given the production level of other services. Such measurements make it possible to compare the productive efficiency of individual employment offices or to make comparisons in that respect between PESs in different countries. Therefore, measurements of productive efficiency can be the basis of actions to improve production and managerial processes. Examples of cost-benefit analyses of PES projects and productive efficiency analyses of PESs are given in the paper. The remainder of this paper is organised as follows: Section 1 opens with a brief sketch of changes in the governance in EU PESs during the last decades. This is followed by an accounting framework addressing both efficiency and distributional aspects of employment services. Section 2 begins with a condensed description of basic principles of cost-benefit analysis which is followed by a review of a number of economic analyses concerning employment services that have been carried out in EU countries. Section 3 is devoted to methods to measure the productive efficiency of individual employment offices and of the PES in one country in relation to productive efficiency of PESs in other countries. It starts with brief overviews of the theory of production and of methods to measure efficiency. Then it presents a review of previous studies and a description of the production of employment offices. This section concludes with the development of a benchmarking model for European employment offices. Section 4 provides concluding remarks.

Judicial courts form a stringent example of public services using partially sticky inputs and outputs with heterogeneous quality. Notwithstanding, governments internationally are striving to improve the efficiency of and diminish the budget spent on court systems. Frontier methods such as data envelopment analysis are sometimes used in investigations of structural changes in the form of mergers. This essay reviews the methods used to evaluate the ex post efficiency of horizontal mergers. Identification of impacts is difficult. Therefore, three analytical frameworks are applied: (1) a technical efficiency comparison over time, (2)a metafrontier approach among mergers and non-mergers, and(3)a conditional difference-in-differences approach where non-merged twins of the actual mergers are identified by matching. In addition, both time heterogeneity and sources of efficiency change are examined ex post. The method is applied to evaluate the impact on efficiency of merging the Swedish district courts from 95 to 48 between 2000 and 2009. Whereas the stated ambition for the mergers was to improve efficiency, no structured ex post analysis has been done. Swedish courts are shown to improve efficiency from merging. In addition to the particular application, this work may inform a more general discussion on public service efficiency measurement under structural changes, and their limits and potential.

Judicial courts form a stringent example of public services using partially sticky inputs and outputs with heterogeneous quality. Notwithstanding, governments internationally are striving to improve the efficiency of and diminish the budget spent on court systems. Frontier methods such as data envelopment analysis are sometimes used in investigations of structural changes in the form of mergers. This essay reviews the methods used to evaluate the ex post efficiency of horizontal mergers. Identification of impacts is difficult. Therefore, three analytical frameworks are applied: (1) a technical efficiency comparison over time, (2)a metafrontier approach among mergers and non-mergers, and(3)a conditional difference-in-differences approach where non-merged twins of the actual mergers are identified by matching. In addition, both time heterogeneity and sources of efficiency change are examined ex post. The method is applied to evaluate the impact on efficiency of merging the Swedish district courts from 95 to 48 between 2000 and 2009. Whereas the stated ambition for the mergers was to improve efficiency, no structured ex post analysis has been done. Swedish courts are shown to improve efficiency from merging. In addition to the particular application, this work may inform a more general discussion on public service efficiency measurement under structural changes, and their limits and potential.

Judicial courts form a stringent example of public services using partially sticky inputs and outputs with heterogeneous quality. Notwithstanding, governments internationally are striving to improve the efficiency of and diminish the budget spent on court systems. Frontier methods such as data envelopment analysis are sometimes used in investigations of structural changes in the form of mergers. This essay reviews the methods used to evaluate the ex post efficiency of horizontal mergers. Identification of impacts is difficult. Therefore, three analytical frameworks are applied: (1) a technical efficiency comparison over time, (2)a metafrontier approach among mergers and non-mergers, and(3)a conditional difference-in-differences approach where non-merged twins of the actual mergers are identified by matching. In addition, both time heterogeneity and sources of efficiency change are examined ex post. The method is applied to evaluate the impact on efficiency of merging the Swedish district courts from 95 to 48 between 2000 and 2009. Whereas the stated ambition for the mergers was to improve efficiency, no structured ex post analysis has been done. Swedish courts are shown to improve efficiency from merging. In addition to the particular application, this work may inform a more general discussion on public service efficiency measurement under structural changes, and their limits and potential.