TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Müller, Kai-Uwe
AU  - Steiner, Viktor
        TI  - Imposed Benefit Sanctions and the Unemployment-to-Employment Transition: The German Experience
        PY  - 2008/May/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 3483
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp3483
        AB  - We analyze the effect of imposed benefit sanctions on the unemployment-to-employment transition of unemployed people entitled to unemployment compensation on the basis of register data from the German Federal Employment Agency. We combine propensity score matching with a discrete-time hazard rate model which accounts for the dynamic nature of the treatment. We find positive short- and long-term effects of benefit sanctions which are robust for men and women in East and West Germany. The effects diminish with the elapsed unemployment duration until a sanction is imposed. The limited use of benefit sanctions can thus be an effective activation tool if they take place not too late in an individual’s unemployment spell.
        KW  - benefit sanctions
KW  - unemployment transitions
KW  - German labor market reform
KW  - ex-post evaluation
KW  - propensity score matching
KW  - hazard rate model
KW  - unobserved heterogeneity
        ER  -