Use of Administrative Data for Counterfactual Impact Evaluation of Active Labour Market Policies in Europe: Country and Time Comparisons

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to document how widespread is, across Europe, the use of administrative data for counterfactual impact evaluations of active labour market policies. The analysis, based on published articles and working papers issued between 2000 and 2016, suggests that the interventions subject to counterfactual impact evaluations are unevenly distributed across Europe, with Germany and the Nordic countries being over-represented, while the opposite is found for East European countries. It is also found that counterfactual impact evaluations based on administrative data tend to (1) measure the effect of active labour market policies on several outcome variables, (2) estimate heterogeneous effects across subgroups and (3) examine short- as well as long-term impacts. In contrast, survey-based counterfactual impact evaluations are usually less comprehensive.