The IZA Evaluation Dataset: Towards Evidence-Based Labor Policy-Making

32 Pages Posted: 3 Jan 2011

See all articles by Marco Caliendo

Marco Caliendo

University of Potsdam; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Armin Falk

University of Bonn - Economic Science Area; briq - Institute on Behavior & Inequality

Lutz Kaiser

IZA Institute of Labor Economics; DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Hilmar Schneider

IZA Institute of Labor Economics; DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Arne Uhlendorff

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Gerard J. van den Berg

University of Groningen; VU University Amsterdam - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Tinbergen Institute

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO); UNU-MERIT; Maastricht University, Department of Economics; Free University Berlin; University of Bonn; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Journal of Population Economics

Abstract

The evaluation of labor market policies has become an important issue in many European countries. In recent years, many of them have opened their administrative databases for evaluation studies. The advantages of administrative data are straightforward: they are accurate, contain a large number of observations (in some cases the whole population) and usually cover a long period of time. However, the information contained in administrative data is normally limited to administrative purposes. Therefore, information that might be relevant for economic modeling is often absent. The IZA Evaluation Dataset aims to overcome such limitations for Germany by complementing administrative data from the Federal Employment Agency with innovative survey data. The administrative part of the dataset consists of a large random sample of inflows into unemployment in Germany from 2001 to 2008 and contains around 920,000 individuals. The complementary survey covers a panel of more than 17,000 individuals who entered unemployment between June 2007 and May 2008. They were initially interviewed shortly after becoming unemployed and then again one year later. In addition, a quarter of individuals were interviewed already after six months. The survey data also contain information on search behavior, ethnic and social networks, psychological factors, (non-)cognitive abilities, and attitudes. This paper describes the sampling and contents of the IZA Evaluation Dataset and outlines the future development.

Keywords: evaluation, labor market policies, survey and administrative data, attitudes, behavior, skills

JEL Classification: J68, H43, C81

Suggested Citation

Caliendo, Marco and Falk, Armin and Kaiser, Lutz and Schneider, Hilmar and Uhlendorff, Arne and van den Berg, Gerard J. and Zimmermann, Klaus F., The IZA Evaluation Dataset: Towards Evidence-Based Labor Policy-Making. IZA Discussion Paper No. 5400, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1733725 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1733725

Marco Caliendo (Contact Author)

University of Potsdam ( email )

August-Bebel Strasse 89
Potsdam, 14482
Germany
+49(0)331/9773225 (Phone)
+49(0)331/9773210 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/empwifo/news.html

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Armin Falk

University of Bonn - Economic Science Area ( email )

briq - Institute on Behavior & Inequality

Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 5-9
Bonn, 53113
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.briq-institute.org/

Lutz Kaiser

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Mohrenstraße 58
Berlin, 10117
Germany

Hilmar Schneider

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Mohrenstraße 58
Berlin, 10117
Germany

Arne Uhlendorff

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Gerard J. Van den Berg

University of Groningen ( email )

P.O. Box 800
9700 AH Groningen, Groningen 9700 AV
Netherlands

VU University Amsterdam - Department of Economics ( email )

De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam
Netherlands
+31 20 444 6132 (Phone)
+32 20 444 6020 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Tinbergen Institute

Burg. Oudlaan 50
Rotterdam, 3062 PA
Netherlands

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Bonn
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://https://glabor.org/

UNU-MERIT ( email )

Keizer Karelplein 19
Maastricht, 6211TC
Netherlands

Maastricht University, Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, Limburg 6200MD
Netherlands

University of Bonn

Postfach 2220
Bonn, D-53012
Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Journal of Population Economics

Tiergartenstr. 17
D-69121 Heidelberg
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
52
Abstract Views
1,171
Rank
684,709
PlumX Metrics