Université de Fribourg

Should Welfare Administration be Centralized or Decentralized? : Evidence from a Policy Experiment

Boockmann, Bernhard ; Thomson, Stephan L. ; Walter, Thomas ; Göbel, Christian ; Huber, Martin

In: German economic review, 2013, vol. 16, no. 1, p. 13-42

The 2005 reform of the German welfare system introduced two competing organizational models for welfare administration. In most districts, a centralized organization was established where local welfare agencies are bound to central directives. At the same time, 69 districts were allowed to opt for a decentralized organization. We evaluate the relative success of both types in terms of...

Université de Fribourg

Do German Welfare-to-Work Programmes Reduce Welfare Dependency and Increase Employment?

Huber, Martin ; Lechner, Michael ; Wunsch, Conny ; Walter, Thomas

In: German economic review, 2011, vol. 12, no. 2, p. 182-204

During the last decade, many Western economies reformed their welfare systems with the aim of activating welfare recipients by increasing welfare-to-work programmes (WTWP) and job-search enforcement. We evaluate the short-term effects of three important German WTWP implemented after a major reform in January 2005 (‘Hartz IV’), namely short training, further training with a planned...