The net impact of active labour programmes in Hungary and Poland

As do many countries, Hungary and Poland provide unemployment compensation and active labour programmes for the unemployed. This article reports on follow-up surveys of participants in retraining, public works, subsidized employment and self-employment programmes compared to non-participants. Preliminary results show a positive net impact of most of these programmes plus benefits from using the employment services, but strong evidence of non-random assignment to programmes signals the need to examine the findings further. Such evaluations provide necessary feedback on the effective use of public resources, though of course the programmes serve multiple objectives, political as well as economic and social.