The centralization of monitoring services in unemployment insurance systems

In 2020, the PES went through a major organizational restructuring and created a new central unit to process all reports of job search activity handed in by jobseekers each month.

The goal of the reform was to separate the job search assistance services offered at local PES offices from the monitoring of job search and was motivated by concerns that the caseworkers at local PES offices did not have enough time to effectively check the monthly reports while also providing job search assistance to jobseekers.

On top of separating monitoring from job search assistance, the reform centralized the monitoring of the monthly activity reports by introducing a semi-automated assessment of the monthly activity reports. As a result, the public resources needed to perform monitoring activities was reduced drastically by the reform.

This might have improved the cost-effectiveness of monitoring systems as a whole.

However, in principle it is not clear whether the reform was able to induce positive job search incentives translating into long-term employment and job quality improvements.

Therefore, the aim of this project is to assess the effectiveness of the rule changes along several dimensions concerning the effect of monitoring and sanctions under the new regime, and the re-employment rates and job quality of jobseekers.