New Techniques for the Evaluation of European Labour Market Policies

Research Training Network

Job Opportunities

Pre- and Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships

Applications are invited for pre- or post-doctoral fellowships of up to three years at one of 6 participating institutions in a new Research Training Network on European Labour Markets (further details below).

Applicants are advised that the terms of the contract specify that they:

• must be 35 years of age or under

• must be a national of an EU Member State or of an Associated State (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) or have lived in the Community for at least five years prior to his/her appointment

• cannot be appointed in a country in which they are a national, or in a country where they have worked/studied for more than 12 months of the 24 months prior to appointment

Applicants should send a CV (including details of 3 referees) and a personal statement in support of their application to one or more of the following participating institutions:

Uppsala University (to Prof Per-Anders Edin)

Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam (to Prof Gerard Van den Berg)

CNRS–INSEE, Paris (to Prof Francis Kramarz)

Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen (to Prof Kjell Salvanes)

University College London (to Professor Steve Machin)

Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn (to Dr Rob Euwals)
 

For specific information regarding the above vacancies (such as application deadlines, salary bands, and qualification requirements), please contact the relevant team leader (contact details above). General queries (such as eligibility conditions) should be directed to Rebecca Arnold at CEPR.

Summary of Network Research Objectives

The fight against unemployment remains a top priority in Europe: in most countries it is high and shows little sign of falling. An examination of different countries shows clearly that a large number and wide variety of policies have been implemented. Moreover, a new drive followed the Luxembourg Job Summit of November 1997, which proposed targets for EU member countries in terms of participants in various training programmes. In view of the large costs of operating these programmes it is of paramount importance that sound research is conducted in the field of policy evaluation to provide a framework for identifying best practices within the current menu of policies.

Although there has been a revolutionary shift in the methodology used in evaluating social programmes in recent years, especially in the US, little is known about the effectiveness of these programmes in Europe. Part of the explanation for why Europe lags behind the US in this area of research has been the lack of adequate data sources where experimental designs that control for selection biases can be developed. As is well known, endogenous choice of programme participation can lead to incorrect scientific inferences and very misleading policy conclusions.

Fortunately, the situation in Europe is changing. A growing number of researchers are becoming well trained in applying the new methodology to both experimental and non-experimental data. New micro datasets, with detailed information on unemployment experiences, programme participation and earnings, are increasingly becoming available. This project brings together eight leading institutions from seven EU countries to undertake five connected lines of research related to the evaluation of labour market policies: youth programmes and transition from school to work; training programmes and adult education; unemployment insurance; subsidies and tax breaks for the less skilled; and working time reductions. The teams in this network include the leading researchers in Europe in the field, both in terms of the new methodology and in the manipulation of the new datasets. The network will thus build a strong community of researchers trained in state-of-the-art techniques and with the capability of exploiting the data now available.

 

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