Impacts of active labor market programs : new evidence from evaluations with particular attention to developing and transition countries

In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the recent international experience with active labor market programs (ALMPs). Basing the evidence on the growing body of program evaluations, it focuses on the impacts of ALMPs on the subsequent employment and earnings of participants. This paper provides an update to earlier assessments by incorporating the results of the more recent program evaluations. It also extends these previous reviews by explicitly considering the impacts of ALMPs in developing and transition countries. While most rigorous program evaluations continue to be undertaken in industrialized countries, this gives a significant number of evaluations from transition and, to a lesser extent, developing countries.