Standardized Theoretical Workday Volume Metric
RCTClinical Trial
Measuring employment impact using raw job contract counts creates heavy measurement distortion because extremely short fixed-term contracts inflate hiring numbers without reflecting real labor volume.
Picture this
Think of measuring rainfall by counting individual raindrops versus collecting water in a rain gauge. Counting drops makes five seconds of heavy drizzle look identical to a full day of steady rain, whereas a gauge measures the exact volume of water collected.
What the evidence says
Treatment increased permanent contract employment by 17.52 theoretical workdays per firm for registered jobseekers (p < 0.05), removing distortion where 53% of raw contract flows lasted one week or less.
- Who was studied
- N = 7,438 establishments in France tracking administrative hiring declarations over a 16.5-month evaluation window.
- How
- Contract flow standardization converting exact start and end dates into total theoretical workdays, censored at 12 months for permanent hires.
What to do
Convert job contract start and end dates into standardized theoretical workday aggregates to evaluate true labor demand changes without duration noise.
From the source
"Calculating workdays allows us to compare the overall theoretical employment creation within and across contract types."
Are_Active_Labor_Market_Policies_Directed_at_Firms_Effective_Evidence.pdf