I am very pleased to announce that I received research funding for a project titled “No Activation without Reconciliation?”. This project will be my main focus in the whole of 2015. From the proposal:

This research proposal seeks to complement the strong micro-econometric tradition in evaluating impacts of active labour market programs (ALMP) with a comparative-sociological approach focused on the national context in which these ALMP are implemented. The proposed study will observe EU countries from 1970 to 2010 to test the argument that ALMP are less effective in reducing unemployment and stimulating employment in societies that provide limited reconciliation policies (paid parental leave, childcare services) to facilitate people in combining work and family responsibilities.

Studying reconciliation policies in relation to ALMP is particularly relevant, as (A.) both ALMP and reconciliation policies are social policies aimed at improving employment, but (B.) are expected to have slightly different outcomes, because (C.) it is to be expected that ALMP are more effective in the context of readily available reconciliation policies, and because (D.) the interaction between ALMP and reconciliation policies is expected to particularly benefit women and parents of young children.

This project entails the analysis of country-level panel data, explaining countries’ (un)employment and inactivity rates by the interaction between measures of ALMP and reconciliation policies. Secondly, the EU-SILC data provides person-level panel data, to allow analyses of person-level trajectories of (un)employment/inactivity.

The funding is provided by the Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU). The announcement (in Swedish) is online.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in more details about the project.