Working Papers
Reframing Active Labor Market Policy: Field Experiments on Barriers to Program Participation (2025), with Lukas Lehner
WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. INEQ Working Paper Series No. 32
registered as AEARCTR-0007141
Poster
Abstract
Governments struggle to attract unemployed workers to their widely offered job training programs. In a randomized field experiments with 11,000 job seekers, we investigate the barriers to participation in job training programs using information interventions designed to encourage participation. Raising awareness about the availability of job training increased program enrollment by 18%. Signaling program cost with a voucher on top to reduce internalized stigma increased completion by 28%. Effects were sizable and concentrated among women and low-income job seekers. Notably, increased job training did not result in higher employment or wages. These findings indicate that while low-cost informational interventions effectively boost participation, the overall success of job training programs in enhancing employment prospects hinges on their fundamental design.
code available on: GitHub
related media coverage: Der Standard; Kurier
Flying to Mars and Venus - The gendered nature of in-work poverty in Europe (2023)
WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. Department of Economics Working Paper Series No. 348
Abstract
This paper addresses the invisibility of women in in-work poverty research by analyzing the Eurostat in-work poverty indicator in combination with a novel individualized in-work poverty indicator. The latter relies on individual income, but still accounts for the household in defining the poverty threshold. I show that men are more often in-work poor due to assumed sharing with other household members, while women are mostly individually poor, but lifted out of poverty on the household level. The latter is not captured by the Eurostat indicator. This seems to be driven by household dynamics. Living with children makes women more financially dependent on their partner- increases individualized in-work poverty-, which in turn increases the burden on men’s income - increases Eurostat in-work poverty. This pattern is most prevalent in countries with a stronger gender division of labor. My results uncover the blind spots in in-work poverty measurement and additionally highlight the potential of using the individualized indicator to measure financial dependency within the household.
related media coverage: Die Presse Blog
All the Same? – Job Quality and Heterogeneity Among the Self-employed (2025), with Petra Sauer and Johanna Hofbauer
WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. INEQ Working Paper Series No. 33
Poster
Abstract
The last decade has seen increasing heterogeneity in self-employed work. While the ‘traditional’ variation associated with entrepreneurialism and autonomy still exists, a precarious segment of workers who choose self-employment out of economic necessity has gained relevance. This article aims to capture the diversity of self-employment in Europe. A multi-dimensional concept of job quality is derived from the literature on dependent employment, adapted to the particularities of self-employed work. Applying Latent Class Analysis to data from the European Working Conditions Survey 2015, a categorisation based on 12 job quality indicators is obtained which identifies four classes. Regulars and Entrepreneurs are the well-paid and -protected classes with high skill levels and development opportunities, while the reverse is true for Part-Ɵmers and Strugglers. Yet both Entrepreneurs and Strugglers work irregular schedules and under high pressure. We further show how the distribution of workers across classes differs across six country groups and provide evidence on the socio-economic and labour market characteristics of workers in each class. Theoretically, this article provides insights into potential extensions to labour market segmentation theory in order to better capture the realities of self-employed workers.