Review of empirical results on individual effects

2 Review of empirical results on individual effects 1.2.1 Lock-in and post-programme effects 

There is also a series of empirical studies that seek to identify the effects of compulsory and supportive elements of different kinds of activation programmes separately. Most of these studies examine the impact of search requirements, counselling, monitoring and sanctioning on the duration of unemployment benefit receipt. 

Sanctions are an important tool of compulsory activation. The use of sanctions has been intensified in recent years, especially in Denmark, Switzerland or the Netherlands as reported in the respective country chapters. On the basis of a large Danish register data set, Svarer (2007) recently analysed the question whether sanctions affect the transition rate from unemployment to employment. He found that the transition rates increased by more than 50% for both males and females as a consequence of sanctions. Similar results have been found for the Netherlands (Abbring et al. 2005) and Switzerland (Lalive et al. 2005). Van den Berg et al. (2004) also found significant effects of sanctions on hazard rates for social assistance recipients in Rotterdam. 

Regarding in-work benefits as a supportive activation instrument, studies have analysed the effects of tax credits in the United Kingdom and the United States where these types of policies are most important. While strong work incentives could be found for single parents, especially in the US, studies have also pointed 

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