SEMINAR: dr. Agnieszka Kanas -Who deserves activation? Exploring disparities in the allocation of active labor market policies

Abstract: Active labor market policies [ALMPs] are becoming increasingly common across Europe. These policies aim to improve the chances of labor market participation of the unemployed instead of providing monetary support to them. Although ALMPs have been implemented to support disadvantaged groups, several studies show that these policies have the potential to exacerbate existing inequalities, as the most disadvantaged clients often face limited opportunities for participation. Despite the significant implications of these findings, the mechanisms underlying underprivileged clients’ lower ALMP participation remain unclear. The implementation of ALMPs is to a large extent dependent upon the decisions made by street-level bureaucrats [SLBs] as they have significant discretion in allocating clients into programs. This research project focuses on this discretion and asks: which client characteristics drive allocation into ALMPs? The research question is studied through a pre-registered survey experiment with Dutch caseworkers who make decisions on the allocation of ALMPs in their daily lives. Caseworkers were presented fictitious client profiles and were asked whether they would consider using four common ALMPs for these clients; a vocational training program, a wage subsidy program, a volunteering program, or a link to an external job hunter. Client profiles vary in migration background, gender, and five characteristics that are related to their deservingness for support.

Bio: Agnieszka is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Politics at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research explores stratification and social inequality, with a particular focus on immigrants’ economic disadvantage and integration, public policy, and intergroup prejudice and discrimination. She currently examines how individual resources and institutional contexts, at both national and local levels, interact to shape ethnic and gender inequalities in European labour markets. As part of this work, she investigates disparities in access to labour market policy measures and their implications for inequality. She also employs quasi-experimental designs to estimate the causal effects of specific policy interventions on the integration outcomes of recent immigrants in Europe. Agnieszka received her PhD in sociology from Utrecht University.

To join the seminar: reach out to s.l.sprong@uu.nl or a.m.p.schlette@uu.nl