How Effective Are Active Labor Market Policies in Developing Countries?: A Critical Review of Recent Evidence

doi:10.1596/1813-9450-8011

Publication:
How Effective Are Active Labor Market Policies in Developing Countries?: A Critical Review of Recent Evidence

dc.contributor.author	McKenzie, David
dc.date.accessioned	2017-04-13T14:55:45Z
dc.date.available	2017-04-13T14:55:45Z
dc.date.issued	2017-03
dc.description.abstract	Jobs are the number one policy concern of policy makers in many countries. The global financial crisis, rising demographic pressures, high unemployment rates, and concerns over automation all make it seem imperative that policy makers employ increasingly more active labor market policies. This paper critically examines recent evaluations of labor market policies that have provided vocational training, wage subsidies, job search assistance, and assistance moving to argue that many active labor market policies are much less effective than policymakers typically assume. Many of these evaluations find no significant impacts on either employment or earnings. One reason is that urban labor markets appear to work reasonably well in many cases, with fewer market failures than is often thought. As a result, there is less of a role for many traditional active labor market policies than is common practice. The review then discusses examples of job creation policies that do seem to offer promise, and concludes with lessons for impact evaluation and policy is this area.	en
dc.identifier	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/256001490191438119/How-effective-are-active-labor-market-policies-in-developing-countries-a-critical-review-of-recent-evidence
dc.identifier.doi	10.1596/1813-9450-8011
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10986/26352
dc.language	English
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseries	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8011
dc.rights	CC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holder	World Bank
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo
dc.subject	LABOR MARKET
dc.subject	LABOR POLICY
dc.subject	LABOR REGULATIONS
dc.subject	VOCATIONAL TRAINING
dc.subject	WAGE SUBSIDIES
dc.subject	JOB SEARCH ASSISTANCE
dc.title	How Effective Are Active Labor Market Policies in Developing Countries?	en
dc.title.subtitle	A Critical Review of Recent Evidence	en
dc.type	Working Paper	en
dc.type	Document de travail	fr
dc.type	Documento de trabajo	es
dspace.entity.type	Publication
okr.crossref.title	How Effective Are Active Labor Market Policies in Developing Countries? A Critical Review of Recent Evidence
okr.date.disclosure	2017-03-22
okr.doctype	Publications & Research
okr.doctype	Publications & Research::Policy Research Working Paper
okr.docurl	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/256001490191438119/How-effective-are-active-labor-market-policies-in-developing-countries-a-critical-review-of-recent-evidence
okr.guid	256001490191438119
okr.identifier.doi	10.1596/1813-9450-8011
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum	090224b084a2c441_1_0
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum	27291361
okr.identifier.report	WPS8011
okr.imported	true
okr.language.supported	en
okr.pdfurl	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/256001490191438119/pdf/WPS8011.pdf	en
okr.statistics.combined	12168
okr.statistics.dr	256001490191438119
okr.statistics.drstats	9164
okr.topic	Social Protections and Labor::Employment and Unemployment
okr.topic	Social Protections and Labor::Labor Markets
okr.topic	Social Protections and Labor::Labor Policies
okr.topic	Social Protections and Labor::Skills Development and Labor Force Training
okr.topic	Social Protections and Labor::Vocational & Technical Education
okr.unit	Finance and Private Sector Development Team, Development Research Group
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