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11 Jul 19 | News

LISER discusses the importance of conducting public policy impact evaluations in Luxembourg

The annual meeting gathered governing bodies in Luxembourg to evaluate public policy

On June 21st, LISER researcher Michela Bia was selected to be on a Scientific Council to present works to Luxembourgish public bodies.  The event, organised by IDEA foundation address the issue of impact evaluation of public policies. To do so, IDEA had opened the meeting to qualified members from the European Court of Auditors, the Chamber of Deputies, the Observatory Training and the University of Luxembourg.

In keeping with the goal of the event, Michela presented the results of the recently concluded project ‘EvaLab4Lux’. By using the IGSS/ADEM administrative dataset, she showed the importance of observing the trajectory of each employee before and after a training program, from the point of view of employment, remuneration and professional skills for conducting a proper study. During the presentation it was also highlighted the need of a systematic evaluation of public policies, given the significant cost of active labor market programs on one side and the fundamental importance of monitoring interventions that should be as effective as possible. In this sense, evaluation becomes a fundamental aspect of public policy development. The above studies combined quantitative and qualitative methods (individual interviews with the local promoters, which allowed to gather the beneficiaries’ point of view of those measures for example). The focus of the analyses were interventions targeting job-seekers, whose personal characteristics were also tracked (sector, gender, nationality, age, family situation, level of training, languages, employability, employment trajectories, unemployed, RMG, etc…). The effect of the different interventions was assessed 3, 6 and 18 months after receiving the training. The results obtained in the descriptive analyses - a first group of 5 projects was analyzed in June 2017 and a summary of the overall results but also project by project was carried out in November 2018 - are generally positive in terms of subsequent trajectories of the individuals studied ((re) integration on the labor market, in particular). Between one-half and three-quarters of beneficiaries would have been under contract in December 2016.

Invited members 

  • Rolf Tarrach, former rector of the University of Luxembourg
  • Pierre Ahlborn, CEO of the Bank of Luxembourg;
  • Claude Frieseisen, Secretary of the Chamber of Deputies;
  • Marc Wagener, Director of Economic Affairs of the Chamber of Commerce;
  • Erna Hennicot Schoepges, Luxembourgishpolitician for the Christian Social People's Party;
  • Michel Beine, Professor of Economics at the University of Luxembourg;
  • Danièle LAMARQUE, Membre de la SOLEP et de la Cour des Comptes européenne ;
  • François-Xavier BORSI, Membre de la SOLEP et Senior Manager KPMG Luxembourg ;
  • Christel CHATELAIN, Membre de la SOLEP, Conseillère auprès des Affaires économiques de la Chambre de Commerce ;
  • Laure DEMEZET, Membre de la SOLEP, Attachée auprès des Affaires économiques de la Chambre de Commerce ;
  • Alex DURAND, Responsable de l’Observatoire de la formation de l’INFPC ;
  • Claude FRIESEISEN, Secrétaire Général de la Chambre des Députés ;
  • Jean-Baptiste NIVET, Attaché auprès des Affaires économiques de la Chambre de Commerce.
  • Philippe POIRIER, Titulaire de la Chaire de recherche en études parlementaires de l’Université du Luxembourg ;
  • Benoît REITER, Secrétaire Général adjoint de la Chambre des Députés ;

More about the EvaLab4Lux
Given the high cost of labour market programmes, the fundamental necessity to evaluate whether interventions have had or will have their intended effects, and the need for better tools to design future policies, evaluation is becoming a fundamental aspect of policy making. It should provide answers about what programmes work for whom and why, and how to design optimal future policies. OECD (2010, 2012) policy recommendations are clearly formulated “… job prospects amongst unemployed and cost effectiveness would benefit from a better design of labour market programmes in Luxembourg”. Few studies exist on the effectiveness of active labour market policies (ALMPs) in the country (e.g., Brosius and Zanardelli, 2012). They report a positive effect of the training on post-treatment employment in the short-term, but reduced in the long-run. However, a variety of heterogeneous LM sub-programmes took place in the country (e.g., trainings, public employment contracts, internships...etc), with a focus on different target groups, objectives, and duration as well as selection rules. This questions the validity of the classical (binary) treatment effect approach (that is, evaluation of being trained or not on sub-sequent labor market outcomes). In contrast, the type of the measure received should be acknowledged to uncover new type of insights on the effectiveness of alternative ALM schemes generally implemented by the local government. Finally, ESF supported activities related to the promotion of ALMPs will be also included in our studies.

The aim of this project is to contribute to this field of research by:

  • Building the relative administrative dataset, collecting information included in the global social security database on labour force in Luxembourg (IGSS) and the administrative data collected by the Employment Agency (ADEM);
  • Providing systematic studies of all active labour market programmes in Luxembourg (such as descriptive statistics and survival analyses);
  • Conducting impact evaluation studies of all active labour market programmes implemented in the country, based on advanced methodologies that guarantee the robustness and reliability of the results as well as the tractability and availability of tools for policy analysis.