Preface 7
Contents 9
Abbreviations 13
Symbols 15
Introduction 18
Part I Microeconometric Evaluation Methods 25
1 Introduction in Programme Evaluation 26
1.1 Introduction 26
1.2 The Evaluation Framework 28
1.3 How Do Randomised Experiments Solve the Evaluation Problem? 34
1.4 Evaluation Estimators 36
1.5 The Principle of Unconfoundedness 47
1.6 Summary - Which Estimator to Choose? 55
2 The Evaluation of Policy Interventions with Matching Estimators 60
2.1 Introduction 60
2.2 The Balancing Property of the Propensity Score 62
2.3 Alternative Matching Estimators 63
2.4 Matching on Covariates 71
2.5 Combination of Matching with Other Methods 73
2.6 E.ciency and Large-Sample Properties of Matching Estimators 76
2.7 Which Matching Estimator to Choose? 82
3 Some Practical Guidance for the Implementation of Propensity Score Matching Estimators 88
3.1 Introduction 88
3.2 The Implementation of Matching Estimators 90
3.3 Sensitivity Analysis with Rosenbaum Bounds 101
3.4 More Practical Issues 104
3.5 Conclusion 110
Part II The Evaluation of Job Creation Schemes in Germany 115
4 The German Labour Market and Active Labour Market Policies - A Brief Overview 116
4.1 Introduction 116
4.2 Institutional Setup and Instruments 118
4.3 Previous Empirical Studies 130
4.4 Dataset Used in our Analysis 136
4.5 Outline of the Empirical Analysis 141
5 Microeconometric Evaluation of Job Creation Schemes - Part I: Individual and Regional Heterogeneity 144
5.1 Introduction 144
5.2 Groups of Analysis and Selected Descriptives 146
5.3 Implementation of the Matching Estimator 151
5.4 Results 164
5.5 Conclusion 175
6 Microeconometric Evaluation of Job Creation Schemes - Part II: Programme Heterogeneity 178
6.1 Introduction 178
6.2 Groups of Analysis and Selected Descriptives 179
6.3 Implementation of the Propensity Score Matching 185
6.4 Results 189
6.5 Conclusions 198
7 Conclusions and Outlook 200
A Additional Material to Chapter 4 206
B Additional Material to Chapter 5 210
C Additional Material to Chapter 6 236
List of Tables 256
List of Figures 260
References 262