Leaving Poverty Behind? The Effects of Generous Income Support Paired with Activation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Markussen, Simen; Roed, Knut
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20140334
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 180-211
• 关键词: unemployment duration; economic incentives; INEQUALITY; PROGRAMS; rehabilitation; malnutrition; determinant; insurance; networks; POLICY

摘要

We evaluate a comprehensive activation program in Norway targeted at hard-to-employ social assistance claimants with reduced work capacity. The program offers a combination of tailored rehabilitation, training, and job practice, and a generous, stable, and non-means-tested benefit. Its primary aims are to mitigate poverty and subsequently promote self-supporting employment. Our evaluation strategy exploits a geographically staggered program introduction, and the causal effects are identified on the basis of changes in employment prospects that coincide with local program implementation in a way that correlates with the predicted probability of becoming a participant. We find that the program raised employment prospects considerably.