Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/45985 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5442
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In this paper, we use a recent policy change in the Netherlands to study how changes in search requirements for the older unemployed affect their transition rates to employment, early retirement and sickness/disability benefits. The reform, becoming effective on January 1st 2004, required the elderly to formally report their job search efforts to the employment office in order to avoid a (temporary) cut in benefits. Before the new law was passed, unemployed were allowed to stop all search activity at the moment they turned 57.5. Estimating various duration models using difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity approaches, we find that for several groups of individuals that were affected by the policy change, the stricter search requirements did significantly increase their entry rate into employment. However, we also find evidence of a higher outflow to sickness/disability insurance schemes, a presumably unwanted side-effect of the policy change.
Subjects: 
duration analysis
policy evaluation
search effort
substitution
JEL: 
C31
J26
J64
J68
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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