CEPR / IZA Workshop - Improving Labor Market Performance: The Need for Evaluation

Date: October 4 - 5, 2002
Place: IZA, Schaumburg-Lippe-Str.7-9, Bonn, Germany
Organizer: Hielke Buddelmeyer (IZA), Rob Euwals (IZA and CEPR) and Christoph M. Schmidt (University of Heidelberg, IZA and CEPR)

This workshop is the second meeting of the Research Training Network on "New Techniques for the Evaluation of European Labor Market Policies".

Over recent decades, many countries, particularly in Europe, installed and extended labor market programs and policies to fight unemployment. These programs and policies include youth and adult education, training, employer subsidies, tax breaks for the less skilled, and working time reductions. Unfortunately, we still lack a great deal of knowledge about the effectiveness of these different initiatives. Given the enormous costs involved, it is of great importance that an evaluation of these initiatives is developed to identify the best practices in terms of effectiveness.

The objective of the meeting is to bring together the researchers in this community in an informal setting, with the explicit agenda of presenting and discussing current applied and theoretical work in the area of labor market program and policy evaluation.

Friday, October 4
12:45 - 13:45	Lunch
13:45 - 14:00	Welcome
14:00 - 15:00	Markus Froelich (University of St. Gallen and IZA) "Treatment Choice Based on Semiparametric Evaluation Methods" Discussant: Oivind Anti Nilsen (University of Bergen and IZA)
15:00 - 16:00	Rafael Lalive (University of Zurich and IZA), Jan C. van Ours (Tilburg University, CEPR and IZA) and Josef Zweimüller (University of Zurich, CEPR and IZA) "The Effect of Benefit Sanctions on the Duration of Unemployment" Discussant: Ines Hardoy (Institute for Social Research, Oslo)
16:00 - 16:30	Coffee Break
16:30 - 17:30	Thierry Kamionka (CREST), Guy Lacroix (CREFA, Université Laval Quebec and CIRANO Montreal) "Assessing the Extent of Randomization Bias in the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Experiment" Discussant: Rob Euwals (CPB, Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, CEPR and IZA)
17:30 - 18:30	Enrico Rettore (University of Padova) and Erich Battistin (Institute for Fiscal Studies) "Another Look at the Regression Discontinuity Design" Discussant: Marloes van Zijl (University of Amsterdam)
19:00	Dinner at Al Capone, Weberstr. 3
Saturday, October 5
9:00 - 10:00	Deborah Cobb-Clark (Australian National University and IZA), Robert Breunig (Australian National University), Yvonne Dunlop (Victoria University of Technology) and Marion Terrill (Department of Family and Community Services) "Assisting the Long-Term Unemployed: Results from a Randomized Trial" Discussant: Thomas Andrén (Göteborg University)
10:00 - 11:00	Laura Larsson (Uppsala University) and Kenneth Carling (Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation) "Does early Intervention help the Unemployed Youth?" Discussant: Pal Boring (Institute for Social Research Oslo)
11:00 - 11:30	Coffee Break
11:30 - 12:30	Jeffrey Smith (University of Maryland and IZA), Petra Todd (University of Pennsylvania and IZA) "Does Matching Overcome Lalonde?s Critique of Nonexperimental Estimators?" Discussant: Per-Anders Edin (Uppsala University and CEPR)
12:30 - 13:30	Lunch
13:30 - 14:30	Kenneth Troske (University of Missouri and IZA), Peter Mueser and Alexey Gorislavsky (University of Missouri) "Using State Administrative Data to Measure Program Performance" Discussant: Alfonso Arellano (Universidad Carlos III)
14:30 - 15:30	Kjell G. Salvanes (Norwegian School of Economics), Arild Aakvik and Kjell Vaage (University of Bergen) "Measuring the Effect of a School Reform on Educational Attainment and Earnings" Discussant: Pierre Cahuc (University of Paris, CEPR and IZA)
15:30 - 16:00	Coffee Break
16:00 - 17:00	Bruno Crépon (CREST-INSEE), Rozenn Desplatz (Direction de la Prevision, Ministere des Finances) "The Effects of Payroll Tax Subsidies for Low Wage Workers on Firms Level Decisions" Discussant: Sandra McNally (London School of Economics)
17:00 - 18:00	Arild Aakvik (University of Bergen), Tor Helge Holmas (University of Bergen) and Egil Kjerstad (SNF, Program for Health Economics Bergen) "A Low-Key Social Insurance Reform - Treatment Effects for Back Pain Patients in Norway" Discussant: Daniela Andrén (University of Göteborg)
18:00	Adjournment

Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered for all participants according to the usual CEPR travel guidelines, but if you could contribute to the costs of your attendance from a research grant at your disposal this would free up space for someone else. Please indicate on your reply form whether you will be able to cover your own travel costs, or whether you will require funding from CEPR. Please note that it may not be possible to accept all applications to attend this conference.