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Short-term training has recently become the largest active labor market program in Germany regarding the number of participants. Little is known on the effectiveness of different types of short-term training and on their longrun effects. This paper estimates the effects of short-term training programs in West Germany starting in the time period 1980 to 1992 and 2000 to 2003 regarding the two outcomes employment and participation in longer training programs. We find that shortterm training shows mostly persistently positive and often significant employment effects. Short-term training focusing on testing and monitoring search effort shows slightly smaller effects compared to the pure training variant. The lockin periods lasted longer in the 1980s and 1990s compared to the early 2000s. Short-term training results in higher future participation in longer training programs and this effect was much stronger for the earlier time period.

Short?term training has recently become the largest active labor market program in Germany regarding the number of participants. Little is known on the effectiveness of different types of short?term training and on their long?run effects. This paper estimates the effects of short?term training programs in West Germany starting in the time period 1980 to 1992 and 2000 to 2003 regarding the two outcomes employment and participation in longer training programs. We find that short?term training shows mostly persistently positive and often significant employment effects. Short?term training focusing on testing and monitoring search effort shows slightly smaller effects compared to the pure training variant. The lock?in periods lasted longer in the 1980s and 1990s compared to the early 2000s. Short?term training results in higher future participation in longer training programs and this effect was much stronger for the earlier time period.

Gemessen an der Zahl der Teilnehmer haben sich kurzzeittige Trainingsmaßnahmen zum wichtigsten Instrument aktiver Arbeitsmarktpolitik entwickelt. Über die Effizienz unterschiedlicher Formen von Trainingsmaßnahmen und über ihre langfristigen Auswirkungen ist jedoch wenig bekannt. In dem Beitrag werden die Auswirkungen kurzzeitiger Trainingsmaßnahmen in Westdeutschland im Zeitraum von 1980 bis 1992 und im Zeitraum 2000 bis 2003 hinsichtlich der beiden Ergebnisse Erwerbstätigkeit und Teilnahme an Langzeit-Trainingsmaßnahmen geschätzt. Es werden meist persistente positive und häufig signifikante Beschäftigungseffekte kurzzeitiger Trainingsmaßnahmen nachgewiesen. Trainingsmaßnahmen, die einen Schwerpunkt auf Kontrolle des Suchaufwandes legen, zeigen im Vergleich mit reinen Trainingsprogrammen geringfügig geringere Effekte. Die Dauer der Lock-In-Perioden war in den 1980er Jahren und in den 1990er Jahren länger als zu Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts. Kurzzeitige Trainingsmaßnahmen führen zu einer häufigeren Teilnahme an Langzeit-Trainingsmaßnahmen, wobei diese Auswirkung im früheren Zeitraum stärker ausgeprägt ist.

Short-term training has recently become the largest active labor market program in Germany regarding the number of participants. Little is known on the effectiveness of different types of short-term training and on their long-run effects. This paper estimates the effects of short-term training programs in West Germany starting in the time period 1980 to 1992 and 2000 to 2003 regarding the two outcomes employment and participation in longer training programs. We find that short-term training shows mostly persistently positive and often significant employment effects. Short-term training focusing on testing and monitoring search effort shows slightly smaller effects compared to the pure training variant. The lock-in periods lasted longer in the 1980s and 1990s compared to the early 2000s. Short-term training results in higher future participation in longer training programs and this effect was much stronger for the earlier time period.

We use a new and exceptionally rich administrative data set for Germany to evaluate the employment effects of a variety of public sponsored training programs in the early 2000s. Building on the work of Sianesi (2003, 2004), we employ propensity score matching methods in a dynamic, multiple treatment framework in order to address program heterogeneity and dynamic selection into programs. Our results suggest that in West Germany both short-term and medium-term programs show considerable employment effects for certain population subgroups but in some cases the effects are zero in the medium run. Short-term programs are surprisingly effective when compared to the traditional and more expensive longer-term programs. With a few exceptions, we find little evidence for significant positive treatment effects in East Germany. There is some evidence that the employment effects decline for older workers and for low-skilled workers.

New administrative data have recently permitted a differentiated and dynamic evaluation of the employment effects of measures of further vocational training in Germany which have been conducted in the context of active labour market policy. The data available for this purpose include firstly data for the time of the Employment Promotion Act in the 1980s and 1990s, and secondly the data of the Integrated Employment Biographies (Integrierten Erwerbsbiografien (IEB)) for the Social Code III from the year 2000 onwards. The aim of this paper is to assess the results of currently presented evaluations on the basis of these new data sets. We report results from other studies as well as those from our own studies. The results show that the employment effects of measures of further vocational training are far more positive than suggested by studies conducted in the past on the basis of survey data. It can be seen however, that long training measures often do not show their positive effects until some years later. This requires panel data over a long period of time, which are currently only available for the 1980s and 1990s. For this reason, policy implications about the effectiveness of further training measures should not be drawn on the basis of short-term employment effects alone.

"Short-term training has recently become the largest active labor market program in Germany regarding the number of participants. Little is known on the effectiveness of different types of short-term training and on their long-run effects. This paper estimates the effects of short-term training programs in West Germany starting in the time period 1980 to 1992 and 2000 to 2003 regarding the two outcomes employment and participation in longer training programs. We find that short-term training shows mostly persistently positive and often significant employment effects. Short-term training focusing on testing and monitoring search effort shows slightly smaller effects compared to the pure training variant. The lock-in periods lasted longer in the 1980s and 1990s compared to the early 2000s. Short-term training results in higher future participation in longer training programs and this effect was much stronger for the earlier time period." (author's abstract)