Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/214959 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 7957
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
This paper studies whether the decentralization of public employment services (PES) increases job placements among the unemployed. Decentralizing PES has been a widely applied reform used by governments aiming to enhance their efficacy. However, economic theory is ambiguous about its effects, and empirical evidence has been scarce. Using a difference-in-differences design, we exploit unique within-country variation in decentralization provided by the partial devolution of German job centers in 2012. We find that decentralization reduces job placements by approximately 10%. Decentralized providers expand the use of public job creation schemes which diminish job seekers' reemployment prospects but shift costs to higher levels of government.
Subjects: 
decentralization
public employment services
job placements
JEL: 
H11
H75
I38
J48
J64
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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