My research

Publications

We study the effect of job search monitoring (JSM) on individual labor market outcomes of the long-term unemployed. Exploiting the implementation of a JSM program targeted at jobseekers under the age of 49, we set up a regression discontinuity design that credibly identifies the program’s causal effect on unemployment, employment, and disability insurance (DI) participation and participation in other social welfare programs within a three-year period. We find that JSM increases exits from unemployment to DI without affecting transitions into employment or other social welfare programs. We further find that the effect of JSM on DI materializes before any sanction can be imposed and monitored individuals are still 10 percentage points more likely to be on DI three years after the start of monitoring. Ultimately, exploring fiscal implications reveals that the decrease in unemployment transfers as a result of JSM is entirely offset by the increase in DI transfers.

Previously circulated as IZA Discussion Paper No. 12304, entitled "The Unexpected Consequences of Job Search Monitoring: Disability Instead of Employment?"

Work in progress

This paper analyzes subsidies for the domestic services sector, an increasingly popular policy to create employment opportunities for low-skilled workers. Using Belgian administrative data, a differences-in-differences approach, and a shift-share instrumental variable, we estimate the local effects of the policy in targeted industries as well as overall effects on the labor market. We find that domestic service subsidies can increase female employment in the subsidized industries as well as the overall employment rate. This increase in employment is primarily driven by an increase in (formal) labor market participation and, to a lesser extent, a reduction in the rate of participation in unemployment insurance and in other social welfare programs. We also find that these subsidies can lead to an increase in the rate of work incapacity, likely due to the fact they broaden the population that can access the social safety net. 

[Featured in La Libre and this short video]

We explore whether labour shortages can be addressed through a low-cost information intervention on shortage occupations and related trainings. We implement a large-scale field experiment in cooperation with a Public Employment Service, in which we inform 100,000 recently unemployed jobseekers about shortage occupations and available training programs. Using survey and administrative data, we estimate the effect of the information intervention on training intentions and enrolment, as well as job search and employment. Our (preliminary) findings show that although the treatment email increased intentions to enrol in trainings, it had limited effects on actual training behaviour or employment.

This project focuses on the consequences of institutional discrimination, i.e., discriminatory treatment of individuals (based on their membership to a certain group) perpetuated by organizations. In particular, the project explores two Dutch policies that created institutional discrimination, and aims at causally estimating the impacts on the socio-economic outcomes of affected individuals. By focusing on discrimination perpetuated by institutions instead of individuals, this project contributes to a novel angle in the study of discrimination in economics.

We investigate how best to encourage more jobseekers to enrol in demand-driven occupational training programs, as a means to address mismatch unemployment. To do so, we propose an innovative collaboration between academia and public employment services in Belgium. The project aims at (i) building a useful tool to predict jobseeker’s participation in training programs, and (ii) using this tool in three randomized field experiments to encourage more jobseekers to enroll in trainings related to shortage occupations. The first experiment will explore whether the new tool created in the first step allows to better target the jobseekers who are invited to specific training programs. The second experiment will test whether, in addition to appropriate targeting, jobseekers need to be informed about the fact that similar individuals have successfully followed the training in the past. The third experiment will investigate whether the tool is best used by caseworkers to help them advise the jobseekers that they meet. Together, the new tool and the three field experiments will allow to generate scientifically and policy relevant findings on how to bridge the gap between the skills of unemployed jobseekers and the skill shortages experienced by firms.

This project explores how public policies can affect school segregation and inequalities in children's access to high-quality education. Using rich administrative data from Flanders, we will investigate to what extent the adoption of a policy allocating students to schools on a partly random basis affects the access of disadvantaged students to high-quality schools. In addition, we will estimate whether the effects of attending an elite school are heterogeneous across disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students.