Reintegrating Older Long-Term Unemployed Workers: The Impact of Temporary Job Guarantees

Negative duration dependence in unemployment makes long-term unemployment particularly challenging to address. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a novel public policy intervention: a large-scale, temporary job guarantee program targeting older long-term unemployed individuals, offering employment for a maximum duration of two years. By exploiting a sharp age-based discontinuity in eligibility, we assess the program’s impact on subsequent employment and health outcomes. Our findings reveal that, two years after the program ended, individuals were 46 percent- age points more likely to be employed in the primary labor market. Participation had no measurable impact on health outcomes. Joint paper with Alexander Ahammer, Pia Heckl, and Rudolf Winter-Ebmer.