Policy & public sector
33findings0stories
The findings
Administrative Exclusion of Inactive Work Scheme BeneficiariesDigital direct deposit migration focused predominantly on recent workers, excluding former female laborers despite one-third of surveyed women having previously requested program work and 75% expressing a desire to work.Observational StudyBi-Weekly Adaptive Digital Skills Training in One-Stop WindowThe intervention generated statistically significant improvements in digital skills—specifically device operation, internet browsing, and online administrative task completion—alongside small positive gains in participants' self-perceived employability (Gizatea scale), self-esteem, and life satisfaction.RCTAUNA Integrated Social and Employment One-Stop ModelThe intervention increased participant engagement in vocational training and employment counseling, generated small positive gains in working days and employment intensity during the final 3 months, and significantly enhanced participant empowerment (self-perceived capacity to handle stressful situations), though it did not reduce minimum income benefit reliance.RCTCoordinated Needs-Assessment One-Stop Model for Welfare RecipientsThe one-stop shop model significantly increased the take-up of municipal social support programs and enhanced participants' mental health, but produced no statistically significant impacts on employment status, days worked, job search ability, or take-up of employment and training programs.RCTBureaucratic Implementation Capacity in Export PromotionOpening trade promotion offices in foreign markets significantly increased long-term manufacturing exports when staffed by highly skilled bureaucrats, but generated no positive export impact when less-skilled officials were assigned to manage the offices.Observational StudyFull Caseworker Discretion and System Sabotage15% of treatment caseworkers (21 out of 142) never downloaded predictions for any client, overall predictions were inspected for only 37% of jobseekers, and IV estimates confirmed that downloading predictions had no statistically significant effect on compliance rates (0.00 to -0.05 across specifications).RCTCaseworker Execution HeterogeneityStatistically significant caseworker-driven treatment effect variation among low-employability clients (F-test p-value = 0.041), indicating that individual caseworker practices moderate the re-employment impact of early integration agreements.RCTDedicated Communal Hubs and Peer Support NetworksThe ACCEDE intervention produced a large, positive impact on household income, boosted job applications, increased participation in recruitment interviews and vocational training, and enhanced internet access, social rights navigation, and community group participation.RCTComprehensive One-Stop Shop Social Support ModelThe one-stop shop model improved overall synthetic indicators of social inclusion, housing conditions, parental skills, family satisfaction, and community integration, while reducing child material deprivation and increasing job search intensity, though it produced no statistically significant increase in short-term employment rates or earned income.RCTCross-Country Inverse Meritocracy-Salary Gap GradientPublic sector pay progression is significantly higher in lower-GDP countries (p < 0.001), while public sector meritocracy is significantly lower in lower-GDP countries (p < 0.001), demonstrating that demotivating non-meritocratic pay gaps are structurally concentrated in developing states.Observational StudySocio-Cultural Home-Location ConstraintsOffering start-up loans and training to female microentrepreneurs in Pakistan increased initial business creation attempts, but because social norms and domestic preferences restricted operation to residential homes, businesses failed to generate sufficient income, resulting in no net rise in female business ownership overall.RCTFiscal Return on Active Labor Market PoliciesStandard public counseling cost €120 per client. Public intensive counseling cost €657 per client and reduced government net costs slightly per job seeker (statistically non-significant). Private intensive counseling cost between €900 and €3,947 per client and increased total net government expenses by approximately €1,162 per enrollee without reducing overall unemployment benefit days paid.RCTApplied Vocational Entrepreneurship and Career Guidance ModelThe intervention generated a statistically significant reduction in vocational education dropout rates and boosted job search skills and self-perceived job search capacity, though it did not increase participants' intentions to launch a business or short-term employment rates.RCTHousing Assistance Leaky Bucket Efficiency LossVoucher usage reduces recipient annual earnings by $1,316, representing approximately 19 percent of the $6,860 recipient subsidy value, alongside a direct $1,540 gap between government outlay ($8,400) and equivalent variation ($6,860).RCTMeans-Tested Housing Voucher Work DisincentiveVoucher utilization reduced quarterly employment rates by 3.6 percentage points (6 percent of control complier mean), reduced quarterly earnings by $329 (10 percent of control complier mean), and increased public assistance participation by 6.7 percentage points (12 percent of control complier mean).RCTIn-Kind Housing Benefit Budget Constraint KinkThe average maximum subsidy of $8,265/year carries an estimated equivalent variation of $6,860/year (benefit-to-subsidy ratio of 0.83), reflecting a 17 percent subjective value discount due to in-kind consumption constraints.Expert TheoryIncome Source Substitution EffectWhile treated jobseekers received a mean public transfer increase of €87 per month at month 12, this was offset by a €47 per month reduction in alternate income sources (€26 decrease from employment, €10 decrease from parents, and €11 decrease from other non-work transfers). Consequently, net personal income rose by only €40 per month (ITT, p < 0.05) relative to the control mean of €602 per month.RCTIndividual Microentrepreneur Program (MEI) Tax SimplificationThe program increased business formalization between 2009 and 2015 without causing formal salaried workers to shift into micro-entrepreneurship, but generated average monthly tax default rates between 49% and 51% from 2018 to 2020.Observational StudyInstitutional Friction and Algorithmic Threat PerceptionCanadian authorities spent 5 years building SOMS on massive administrative data, but caseworker resistance and job security fears forced complete cancellation and deletion of the national database in 2002 before field deployment; similarly, Swiss pilot caseworkers in Geneva completely rejected SAPS (download rate <1%).Observational StudyMandatory Caseworker Rotation and Experimental Contamination (Dossierwechsel)Caseworker switching occurred for 7.1% of stock jobseekers and 5.1% of flow jobseekers; empirical estimates of compliance and software impact remained identical with or without switchers (12% Definition 1 compliance across both samples).RCTPrincipal-Agent Objective Misalignment in Decentralized Bureaucracies40% of surveyed caseworkers stated "improving personal situation" as their primary goal for low-qualified unemployed, 35% targeted "long-run reintegration", and only 25% aligned with the federal law's primary statutory objective of "rapid reintegration".Observational StudyPrivate Placement Agency ContractingAssignment to private agencies showed negative or non-significant hazard coefficients (-0.08 in Storstrøm and -0.21 in Southern Jutland for treatment group members), failing to improve exit rates over public agency management.RCTPublic Cost-Benefit Valuation of Policy RegimesThe intensified activation policy regime generated a net societal economic value of €2,000 per exposed unemployed individual, excluding macro general equilibrium effects.Observational StudySix-to-One Social Benefit-to-Cost Efficiency in Youth EmploymentSocial benefits from violent crime reduction in OSC+ were estimated to be nearly six times larger than program costs (~6:1 benefit-cost ratio). SYEP cost per participant was ~$1,400 ($1,463 in 2017 dollars), producing substantial overall reductions in incarceration and premature deaths at a fraction of alternative program costs.RCTRegional Administrative Enforcement VarianceMeeting intensity reached ~0.4 (once every 2.5 weeks) in Storstrøm compared to ~0.3 (once every 3 weeks) in Southern Jutland against a weekly protocol target, yielding distinct meeting risk coefficients (0.47 in Storstrøm vs 2.30 in Southern Jutland).RCTRegional Implementation HeterogeneitySouthern Jutland delegated over 80% of treatment cases to private contractors (vs. ~40% for controls), yielding lower meeting frequencies (~30% weekly) but stronger threat effects; Storstrøm retained public administration (30% contractor usage) with higher meeting intensity (~40% weekly) but weaker threat-driven exit rate responses.RCTLegal Rights Information Decay vs Dialogue PersistenceViewing legal rights videos initially increased transgender worker selection by 10.3 percentage points (a 23% increase), and generic rights messaging increased selection by 5.8 percentage points (a 13% increase). However, approximately one month after the intervention, behavioral impacts from video screenings decayed completely to zero, whereas peer group discussion impacts persisted significantly at 4 percentage points.RCTSocial Cost-Benefit Asymmetry in Youth Crime PreventionPreventing 34 arrests per 1,000 at-risk youth yields $652 to $1,250 in crime reduction savings per participant, directly offsetting 46.5% to 89.4% of total program cost ($1,403) during the summer alone. For low-risk youth, social savings from averted crime total only $2 to $3 per participant.RCTTANF Program Rule Interaction MutingVoucher usage reduced employment by 6.0 percentage points (9 percent of control mean) among households not receiving public assistance at baseline, compared to only 2.5 percentage points (4 percent of control mean) among households receiving public assistance at baseline (p = 0.099).RCTWritten Threat Notification Enforcement ('Stick Treatment')Official written notifications warning of legal penalties significantly increased the proportion of targeted informal firms that completed formal registration.RCTInstitutional Delivery Agent Variation in Training ExecutionRandomized evaluation across 300 Gram Panchayats to measure differential training effectiveness and program enrollment between NGO and public sector facilitators.RCTTwo-Generational Integrated Family Support ModelThe combined two-generational intervention significantly reduced household material and social deprivation, increased monthly household income, elevated parents' academic expectations for their children, and increased children's standardized test scores in mathematics and language.RCTUncoupling Tax and Business Registration ObligationsSmall business demand for formal business registration increased significantly when legal registration was decoupled from mandatory tax obligations.RCT