Active Labor Market Programs (ALMPs) can contribute to increasing employment opportunities and addressing the social problems that often accompany high unemployment. They are considered "active" programs in contrast to "passive" measures such as unemployment insurance or social transfers designed to mitigate the financial hardships of the unemployed. ALMPs include a wide range of activities to stimulate employment and productivity such as: - increasing the quality of labor supply (e.g. retraining);
- increasing labor demand (e.g., public works projects); or
- improving the matching of workers to jobs (e.g., job search assistance).
The Labor Markets Group specializes in program design and evaluation techniques for employment services, training, and job creation/maintenance schemes. For more information, see the following:
Related Employment Policy Primer Papers  Impacts of Active Labor Market Programs: New Evidence from Evaluations with Particular Attention to Developing and Transition Countries (578KB PDF). Executive Summary also available in French (63kb pdf) and Arabic (73kb Word)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0402
Betcherman, Gordon; Olivas, Karina; Dar, Amit
January 2004
In this paper, we provide an overview of the recent international experience with active labor market programs (ALMPs). Basing our evidence on the growing body of program evaluations, the authors focus on the impacts of ALMPs on the subsequent employment and earnings of participants. This paper provides an update to earlier assessments (e.g., Fay, 1996; Dar and Tzannatos, 1999; Martin, 2000; Martin and Grubb, 2001) by incorporating the results of the more recent program evaluations. It also extends these previous reviews by explicitly considering the impacts of ALMPs in developing and transition countries. While most rigorous program evaluations continue to be undertaken in industrialized countries, for the first time the authors now have a significant number of evaluations from transition and, to a lesser extent, developing countries.
Active Labor Market Programs: Policy Issues for East Asia (115KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0005
Betcherman, Gordon; Dar, Amit; Luinstra, Amy N.; Ogawa, Makoto
January 2000
A review of international experience with active labor market programs (ALMPs) and discussion of applicability to five East Asian countries: Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, many of which implemented one or more of these programs in response to the crisis. This paper outlines key policy issues for post-crises active labor market programs. Active Labor Market Programs: A Review of the Evidence from Evaluations (228KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 9901
Dar, Amit; Tzannatos, P. Zafiris
January 1999
A survey of evidence based on 100 evaluations of active labor market programs, most from OECD countries. Though lessons from developed countries may not be directly applicable to developing countries, it is unlikely that these programs will be more successful in developing countries given the scarcity of administrative capacity for implementation.
Evaluating the Impact of Active Labor Programs: Results of Cross Country Studies in Europe and Central Asia (137KB PDF)
Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 9915
Fretwell, David; Benus, Jacob; O'Leary, Christopher
June 1999
This study addresses the economic agenda of ALPs and was designed to answer the question: do active labor programs have a significant positive impact on employment and earnings, and if so for whom? This question is of considerable interest to middle income countries, which have limited resources to allocate to competing development priorities, as well as bilateral and multilateral development agencies. In addition, while there are findings from OECD research indicating that well targeted and designed ALPs may have positive impacts, there is little information available to indicate that such findings can be applied to middle income and transition economies.
Related Employment Policy Primer Notes
"Active Labor Market Programs: Impact Evaluation Techniques"
Available in English (200KB PDF), French (202KB PDF) and Spanish (200KB PDF)
Employment Policy Primer Note No. 2, December 2002
"Public Employment Services: Functions and Innovations" (67KB PDF)
Employment Policy Primer Note No. 3, September 2003 Top |
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