The Effects of an Employment Bonus for Long-Term Social Assistance Recipients

This study uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate effects of an employment bonus program for long-term unemployed social assistance recipients. The program pays benefit bonuses to persons in the target group for any hours they work in regular employment or subsidized employment schemes. The program pays up to 6 % of post-tax earnings if they enter regular or subsidized employment over a specific two-year period. Our results show that the program has no effects on employment rates, earnings or participation in subsidized employment. The null findings are robust when using RD estimates based on different bandwidths and different window widths around the eligibility threshold and hold for given gender, age, ethnicity and parental status.