The effectiveness of European active labor market programs

A central concern about immigration is the integration into the labour market, not only of the first generation but also of subsequent generations. Little comparative work exists for Europe’s largest economies. France, Germany and the UK have all become, perhaps unwittingly, countries with large immigrant populations albeit with very different ethnic compositions. Today, the descendants of these immigrants live and work in their parents destination countries. This article presents and discusses comparative evidence on the performance of first and second-generation immigrants in these countries in terms of education, earnings and employment. It is widely believed that many European countries have a serious problem with the integration of immigrants and their children (LEED, 2006). Many Northern European countries have accumulated sizeable populations of immigrants but the lack of longterm strategies and policies to integrate these into societal structures and the labour market is often cited as one reason for social and economic exclusion of the children of these immigrants. In the past decade, Southern European countries such as Spain and Italy have experienced similar, if not larger, immigrations than the large Northern European economies France, Germany and the UK in the late 1950s to early 1970s. Again, it seems that there is little thought devoted to long-term strategies for immigrants and their descendants. The experience of those countries that had large-scale immigration in the last half of the twentieth century should be of importance for devising future immigration and integration policies. However, there is rather little hard evidence in the literature about the relative position of immigrants and their descendants in these countries, in a manner that allows comparisons to be made. In this article, we aim to provide a comparative study of a number of outcomes (education, earnings and employment) of both first and second-generation immigrants of different origins in the three largest European economies: France, Germany and the UK.

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The Economic Situation of First and Second‐Generation Immigrants in France, Germany and the United Kingdom*

In this paper we examine the empirical relationship between immigration and crime across Italian provinces during the period 1990-2003. Drawing on police administrative data, we first document that the size of immigrant population is positively correlated with the incidence of property crimes and with the overall crime rate. Then, we use instrumental variables based on migration toward other European countries to identify the causal impact of exogenous changes of immigrant population in Italy. According to these estimates, immigration increases only the incidence of robberies, while leaving unaffected all other types of crime. Since robberies represent a very minor fraction of all criminal offenses, the effect on the overall crime rate is not significantly different from zero.

Do Immigrants Cause Crime

We review economics research regarding the effect of police, punishments, and work on crime, with a particular focus on papers from the last twenty years. Evidence in favor of deterrence effects is mixed. While there is considerable evidence that crime is responsive to police and to the existence of attractive legitimate labor-market opportunities, there is far less evidence that crime responds to the severity of criminal sanctions. We discuss fruitful directions for future work and implications for public policy.

https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jel.20141147

Criminal Deterrence: A Review of the Literature

Measures of Active Labor Market Policy are widely used in European countries, but despite many econometric evaluation studies no conclusive cross-country evidence exists regarding ?what program works for what target group under what (economic and institutional) circumstances??. This paper results from an extensive research project for the European Commission aimed at answering that question using a meta-analytical framework. The empirical results are surprisingly clear-cut: Rather than contextual factors such as labor market institutions or the business cycle, it is almost exclusively the program type that matters for program effectiveness. While direct employment programs in the public sector appear detrimental,wage subsidies and ?Services and Sanctions? can be effective in increasing participants? employment probability.

http://dse.univr.it/espe/documents/Papers/D/5/D5_2.pdf

The Effectiveness of European Active Labor Market Policy

In this paper we examine the influence of unemployment on property crimes and on violent crimes in France for the period 1990 to 2000. This analysis is the first extensive study for this country. We construct a regional-level data set (for the 95 departements of metropolitan France) with measures of crimes as reported to the Ministry of Interior. To assess social conditions prevailing in the departement in that year, we construct measures of the unemployment rate as well as other social, economic and demographic variables using multiple waves of the French Labor Survey. We estimate a classic Becker type model in which unemployment is a measure of how potential criminals fare in the legitimate job market. First, our estimates show that in the cross-section dimension, crime and unemployment are positively associated. Second, we find that increases in youth unemployment induce increases in crime. Using the predicted industrial structure to instrument unemployment, we show that this effect is causal for burglaries, thefts, and drug offences. To combat crime, it appears thus that all strategies designed to combat youth unemployment should be examined.

Youth Unemployment and Crime in France

In this paper we examine the influence of unemployment on property crimes and on violent crimes in France for the period 1990 to 2000. This analysis is the first extensive study for this country.Weconstructaregional-leveldataset(forthe95departementsofmetropolitanFrance) with measures of crimes as reported to the Ministry of Interior. To assess social conditions prevailing in the departement in that year, we construct measures of the share of unemployed as well as other social, economic, and demographic variables using multiple waves of the French Labor Survey. We estimate a classic Becker-type model in which unemployment is a measure of how potential criminals fare in the legitimate job market. First, our estimates show that in the cross-section dimension, crime and unemployment are positively associated. Second, we find that increases in youth unemployment induce increases in crime. Using the predicted industrial structure to instrument unemployment, we show that this effect is causal for burglaries, thefts, and drug offenses. To combat crime, it appears thus that all strategies designed to combat youth unemployment should be examined. (JEL: J19, K42, J64, J65)

/pdf/youth-unemployment-and-crime-in-france-4x468f8mcq.pdf

Youth unemployment and crime in france

Our study focuses on the differences in wages and employment between French workers with French parents and French workers with at least one African parent, using the Formation Qualification Professionnelle survey (Insee, Paris, 2003). We introduce econometric decompositions, which allow us to reach conclusions when the potentially discriminated group is small. Then, we clarify the impact of discrimination at the hiring level in this context. We find that unexplained parts in the employment decompositions are much larger than in the wage decompositions. This suggests that, in France, labor market discrimination is more frequent at the hiring level than in the compensation process.

/pdf/wages-and-employment-of-french-workers-with-african-origin-565ou30hsg.pdf

Wages and employment of French workers with African origin

Die Franzosen mit mindestens einem aus dem ; Maghreb eingewanderten Elternteil weisen eine Beschaftigungsquote von 18 Prozentpunkten sowie ; Lohne von 13 % unterhalb derjenigen Franzosen auf, deren beide Elternteile franzosischer Abstammung sind ; ; Mit unserer Studie soll ermittelt werden, welcher Anteil dieser Abweichungen auf die erworbenen ; Ausbildungsabschlusse, das Alter, den Wohnsitz, die Familiensituation der betreffenden Personen usw zuruckzufuhren ist ; ; Zu diesem Zweck schatzen wir zunachst Beschaftigungsund ; Lohngleichungen der franzosischen Bevolkerung, die keinen eingewanderten Elternteil haben Danach ; werden anhand dieser Schatzungen den Franzosen mit maghrebinischer Herkunft ein „potenzielles“ Beschaftigungsniveau und ein „potenzieller“ Lohn zugeordnet, wobei ihre festgestellten individuellen Merkmale ; berucksichtigt werden Das besondere Augenmerk ; gilt der Behandlung der Auswahl, die den Zugang zur ; Beschaftigung beeinflussen kann Den Ergebnissen ist zu entnehmen, dass der Umstand, dass diese Bevolkerungsgruppe unter anderem junger ; ist und im Schnitt uber ein geringes Ausbildungsniveau verfugt, nur fur vier von 18 Prozentpunkten der Abweichungen zwischen den Beschaftigungsquoten ; verantwortlich ist Dagegen erklaren die festgestellten ; Unterschiede der individuellen Merkmale die gesamten ; Lohnunterschiede zwischen beiden Gruppen Diese ; Ergebnisse treffen auch zu, wenn die Situation von ; Mannern und Frauen gesondert analysiert wird Die Franzosen mit mindestens einem aus Sudeuropa ; eingewanderten Elternteil weisen Beschaftigungsquoten auf, die mit denen der Franzosen, deren beide Eltern keinen Migrationshintergrund haben, identisch sind, ; und beziehen Lohne, die um 2 % niedriger sind ; Auch hier lasst sich die Abweichung zwischen diesen ; Bevolkerungsgruppen in vollem Umfang insbesondere ; durch die unterschiedlichen Ausbildungsniveaus ; erklaren

http://www.crest.fr/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Pageperso/raeberhardt/ES433C.pdf

L'emploi et les salaires des enfants d'immigrés

This paper estimates the differences in wages and hierarchical positions that can be attributed to national origin in France. Our data come from a matched employer-employee wage survey performed in 2002. The business survey provides very reliable wage data which are matched to many individual-level variables collected in a household survey. The sample of male full-time workers is decomposed into three sub-samples according to the parents' birthplace (France, North Africa and Southern Europe). The large number of executives in the sample allows us to perform a switching regression model of wage determination and occupational employment. We adapt and extend existing decomposition methods to this framework: while usual methods only take care of selection issues, we develop here a methodology which also properly takes into account composition effects due to differences in hierarchical positions when comparing mean wage gaps. Moreover the method we use only requires model estimation on the reference population and therefore yields more precise results when the sample size of the potentially discriminated group is small. Our results show no wage discrimination but a certain degree of occupational segregation yielding composition effects. Moreover, differences in the returns to some of the individual characteristics including higher diplomas might reveal mechanisms of statistical discrimination on the labor market.

Julien Pouget

Papers

Youth Unemployment and Crime in France

Youth unemployment and crime in france

Wages and employment of French workers with African origin

L'emploi et les salaires des enfants d'immigrés

National Origin Differences in Wages and Hierarchical Positions - Evidence on French Full-Time Male Workers from a matched Employer-Employee Dataset