Counseling the Unemployed: Does it Lower Unemployment Duration and Recurrence?

39 Pages Posted: 18 Oct 2005

See all articles by Bruno Crepon

Bruno Crepon

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - National School for Statistical and Economic Administration (ENSAE); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Muriel Dejemeppe

Catholic University of Louvain - School of Economic and Social Research

Marc Gurgand

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS); National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST)

Date Written: October 2005

Abstract

This article evaluates the effects of intensive counseling schemes that are provided to about 20% of the unemployed since the 2001 French unemployment policy reform (PARE). Several of the schemes are dedicated at improving the quality of assignment of workers to jobs. As a result, it is necessary to assess their impact on unemployment recurrence as well as unemployment duration. Using duration models and a very rich data set, we can identify heterogeneous and time-dependent causal effects of the schemes. We find significant favorable effects on both outcomes, but the impact on unemployment recurrence is stronger than on unemployment duration. In particular, the program shifts the incidence of recurrence, one year after employment, from 33 to 26%. This illustrates that labor market policies evaluations that consider unemployment duration alone can be misleading.

Keywords: unemployment duration, employment duration, active labor market policy, counseling

JEL Classification: J64, J68

Suggested Citation

Crepon, Bruno and Dejemeppe, Muriel and Gurgand, Marc, Counseling the Unemployed: Does it Lower Unemployment Duration and Recurrence? (October 2005). IZA Discussion Paper No. 1796, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=827344 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.827344

Bruno Crepon (Contact Author)

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - National School for Statistical and Economic Administration (ENSAE) ( email )

92245 Malakoff Cedex
France

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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

Muriel Dejemeppe

Catholic University of Louvain - School of Economic and Social Research ( email )

3, Place Montesquieu
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
+32 10 47 41 00 (Phone)
+32 10 47 39 45 (Fax)

Marc Gurgand

National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) ( email )

3, rue Michel-Ange
Paris cedex 16, 75794
France

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST)

15 Boulevard Gabriel Peri
Malakoff Cedex, 1 92245
France

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