Many European countries entertain considerable active labour market policies (ALMP) to increase the reemployment chances of the unemployed. Since policies are very costly the pressure for scientific evaluations of the single programmes that are part of the ALMP increases. This paper surveys recent developments in the methodology of microeconometric evaluation that emphasises the issue of nonparametric identification of causal effects as a pre-requisite for reliable estimation and policy conclusions. The paper concludes with some brief remarks about recent empirical evaluations of the Swiss ALMP.

The evaluation of labour market and other public policies has become increasingly important in recent years. In an era of tight government budgets, a thorough analysis of these measures is imperative. This book provides a comprehensive overview and assessment of the most relevant microeconometric evaluation methods. It focuses on the popular propensity score matching method and gives extensive guidance for its implementation. In the second part of the book, this method is used to evaluate the employment effects of job creation schemes on the participating individuals in Germany. Based on a large administrative dataset of over 11,000 participants, the study allows to draw policy-relevant conclusions for the first time.