The effect on search activity

The effect of activation on job search has been analysed by Geerdsen (2002) in a study concerning incentive effects in Denmark. Empirical data on search activity is usually collected as survey data from a certain period of time and is therefore not suitable for an analysis of change within a period. Instead, it is possible to measure the departure from unemployment by using register data on the duration of unemployment spells. The empirical approximation to change in search activity is therefore the probability of leaving unemployment as the duration of the spell increases and the individual approaches the start of the activation period. 

For the insured unemployed the benefit period is divided in two a passive period where the individual receives benefits without any activation obligations followed by an active period where activation is a counterclaim to receive benefits. As described in the sections above, the duration was reduced during the 1990s. Geerdsen (2002, 2006) uses this change in the system to estimate the effect on the recipients probability of leaving unemployment. 

The following drop in the curve can be explained by the fact that after a year many of the unemployed who do not wish to participate in activation have left the insurance system. The remaining individuals are participants in some sort of activation, and their search activity is even lower in the passive period than in the active period. The shape of the tail of the curve reflects this locking-in effect of activation. 

Unemployed individuals who are not insured will receive social assistance and become eligible for activation by the municipality after a certain period of unemployment. The motivation effect of activation for social assistance recipients has been analysed by Graversen (2004), who looked at differences in the departure from social assistance in municipalities with different practices in the timing of activation. However, he found no significant relationship between the probability of leaving the system and the timing of municipal activation. One of the reasons for this lack of change in search activity could be that the unemployed on social assistance are less likely to get employed due to social and personal problems. 

The search activity among long-term unemployed on social assistance has been examined in a survey reported in Bach (2002). The study shows that 34% believe that they cannot handle a job at all about 20% believe that they could get a job but that it would take at least a month before they would be available to the labour market. Only 35% claim that they could accept a job immediately. Moreover, among the respondents who stated they were searching for a job, about one out of 

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