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In industrialized economies such as the European countries unemployment rates are very responsive to the business cycle and significant shares stay unemployed for more than one year. To fight cyclical and long-term unemployment countries spend significant shares of their budget on Active Labor Market Policies (ALMP). To improve the allocation and design of ALMP it is essential for policy makers to have reliable evidence on the effectiveness of such programs available. Although the number of studies has been increased during the last decades, policy makers still lack evidence on innovative programs and for specific subgroups of the labor market. Using Germany as a case study, the dissertation aims at contributing in this way by providing new evidence on start-up subsidies, marginal employment and programs for youth unemployed. The idea behind start-up subsidies is to encourage unemployed individuals to exit unemployment by starting their own business. Those programs have compared to traditional programs of ALMP the advantage that not only the participant escapes unemployment but also might generate additional jobs for other individuals. Considering two distinct start-up subsidy programs, the dissertation adds three substantial aspects to the literature: First, the programs are effective in improving the employment and income situation of participants compared to non-participants in the long-run. Second, the analysis on effect heterogeneity reveals that the programs are particularly effective for disadvantaged groups in the labor market like low educated or low qualified individuals, and in regions with unfavorable economic conditions. Third, the analysis considers the effectiveness of start-up programs for women. Due to higher preferences for flexible working hours and limited part-time jobs, unemployed women often face more difficulties to integrate in dependent employment. It can be shown that start-up subsidy programs are very promising as unemployed women become self-employed which gives them more flexibility to reconcile work and family. Overall, the results suggest that the promotion of self-employment among the unemployed is a sensible strategy to fight unemployment by abolishing labor market barriers for disadvantaged groups and sustainably integrating those into the labor market. The next chapter of the dissertation considers the impact of marginal employment on labor market outcomes of the unemployed. Unemployed individuals in Germany are allowed to earn additional income during unemployment without suffering a reduction in their unemployment benefits. Those additional earnings are usually earned by taking up so-called marginal employment that is employment below a certain income level subject to reduced payroll taxes (also known as “mini-job”). The dissertation provides an empirical evaluation of the impact of marginal employment on unemployment duration and subsequent job quality. The results suggest that being marginal employed during unemployment has no significant effect on unemployment duration but extends employment duration. Moreover, it can be shown that taking up marginal employment is particularly effective for long-term unemployed, leading to higher job-finding probabilities and stronger job stability. It seems that mini-jobs can be an effective instrument to help long-term unemployed individuals to find (stable) jobs which is particularly interesting given the persistently high shares of long-term unemployed in European countries. Finally, the dissertation provides an empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of ALMP programs to improve labor market prospects of unemployed youth. Youth are generally considered a population at risk as they have lower search skills and little work experience compared to adults. This results in above-average turnover rates between jobs and unemployment for youth which is particularly sensitive to economic fluctuations. Therefore, countries spend significant resources on ALMP programs to fight youth unemployment. However, so far only little is known about the effectiveness of ALMP for unemployed youth and with respect to Germany no comprehensive quantitative analysis exists at all. Considering seven different ALMP programs, the results show an overall positive picture with respect to post-treatment employment probabilities for all measures under scrutiny except for job creation schemes. With respect to effect heterogeneity, it can be shown that almost all programs particularly improve the labor market prospects of youths with high levels of pretreatment schooling. Furthermore, youths who are assigned to the most successful employment measures have much better characteristics in terms of their pre-treatment employment chances compared to non-participants. Therefore, the program assignment process seems to favor individuals for whom the measures are most beneficial, indicating a lack of ALMP alternatives that could benefit low-educated youths.
In 2015, Germany introduced a statutory hourly minimum wage that was not only universally binding but also set at a relatively high level. We discuss the short-run effects of this new minimum wage on a wide set of socio-economic outcomes, such as employment and working hours, earnings and wage inequality, dependent and self-employment, as well as reservation wages and satisfaction. We also discuss difficulties in the implementation of the minimum wage and the measurement of its effects related to non-compliance and suitability of data sources. Two years after the minimum wage introduction, the following conclusions can be drawn: while hourly wages increased for low-wage earners, some small negative employment effects are also identifiable. The effects on aspired goals, such as poverty and inequality reduction, have not materialized in the short run. Instead, a tendency to reduce working hours is found, which alleviates the desired positive impact on monthly income. Additionally, the level of non-compliance was substantial in the short run, thus drawing attention to problems when implementing such a wide-reaching policy.
In 2002 guidelines for the implementation of the internship programme for prospective teachers have been released in a joint venture by the Basic Education Sector Programme(BESP) of the GTZ (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit/German Technical Cooperation) and the Professional Development Centre (Teacher Education) of the National Institute for Education of Sri Lanka (NIE). These guidelines aim at assisting the National Colleges of Education (NCOEs) and internship schools in implementing the internship programme and at improving its efficiency and effectiveness in the local venues of teacher training. The Monitoring & Evaluation activity described in the present article was to assess as to how far the intentions originally associated with the internship programme are being accomplished. Its main task is to bring strengths and weaknesses of the programme to light and to appraise the current status of its implementation.
With the growth of information technology, patient attitudes are shifting – away from passively receiving care towards actively taking responsibility for their well- being. Handling doctor-patient relationships collaboratively and providing patients access to their health information are crucial steps in empowering patients. In mental healthcare, the implicit consensus amongst practitioners has been that sharing medical records with patients may have an unpredictable, harmful impact on clinical practice. In order to involve patients more actively in mental healthcare processes, Tele-Board MED (TBM) allows for digital collaborative documentation in therapist-patient sessions. The TBM software system offers a whiteboard-inspired graphical user interface that allows therapist and patient to jointly take notes during the treatment session. Furthermore, it provides features to automatically reuse the digital treatment session notes for the creation of treatment session summaries and clinical case reports. This thesis presents the development of the TBM system and evaluates its effects on 1) the fulfillment of the therapist’s duties of clinical case documentation, 2) patient engagement in care processes, and 3) the therapist-patient relationship. Following the design research methodology, TBM was developed and tested in multiple evaluation studies in the domains of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy and addiction care. The results show that therapists are likely to use TBM with patients if they have a technology-friendly attitude and when its use suits the treatment context. Support in carrying out documentation duties as well as fulfilling legal requirements contributes to therapist acceptance. Furthermore, therapists value TBM as a tool to provide a discussion framework and quick access to worksheets during treatment sessions. Therapists express skepticism, however, regarding technology use in patient sessions and towards complete record transparency in general. Patients expect TBM to improve the communication with their therapist and to offer a better recall of discussed topics when taking a copy of their notes home after the session. Patients are doubtful regarding a possible distraction of the therapist and usage in situations when relationship-building is crucial. When applied in a clinical environment, collaborative note-taking with TBM encourages patient engagement and a team feeling between therapist and patient. Furthermore, it increases the patient’s acceptance of their diagnosis, which in turn is an important predictor for therapy success. In summary, TBM has a high potential to deliver more than documentation support and record transparency for patients, but also to contribute to a collaborative doctor-patient relationship. This thesis provides design implications for the development of digital collaborative documentation systems in (mental) healthcare as well as recommendations for a successful implementation in clinical practice.