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    Does 'Work for the Dole' Work?

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    Does 'Work for the Dole' Work? (415.4Kb)

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    Author
    Borland, Jeff; TSENG, YI-PING
    Date
    2004-07
    University of Melbourne Author/s
    Borland, Jeffrey; Tseng, Yi-Ping
    Affiliation
    Economics and Commerce: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
    Metadata
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    Document Type
    Preprint
    Citations
    Borland, Jeff and Tseng, Yi-Ping (2004) Does 'Work for the Dole' Work?.
    Access Status
    Open Access
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11343/33797
    Description

    We are very grateful for assistance from the LDS group at the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS), particularly Shaun Burnham and Gerry Carey, and to Tony Hedditch from Centrelink for providing data on the phase Work for the Dole projects. We are also grateful for the opportunity to present this research at the 2002 DEWR Evaluation Workshop, for data provided to us by the Commonwealth Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, and for helpful discussions with Robert Lipp and Linda Richardson. The work has benefited from comments made at a FaCS seminar. The contents of the paper solely reflect the work and opinions of the authors, and cannot be in any manner attributed to the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services.

    Abstract
    This study examines the effect of a community-based work experience program - Work for the Dole (WfD) - on transitions out of unemployment in Australia. To evaluate the WfD program a quasi-experimental exact matching approach is applied. Justification for the matching approach is a 'natural experiment' - limits on WfD project funding - that it is argued constituted a source of random assignment to the program. Participation in the WfD program is found to be associated with a large and significant adverse effect on the likelihood of exiting unemployment payments. The main potential explanation is existence of a 'lock-in' effect whereby program participants reduce job search activity.
    Keywords
    unemployment benefits

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