Towards comprehensive policy-evaluation : reassessing the effects of labour market and social policies from an interdisciplinary perspective

Abstract

Labour market and social policies have far-reaching consequences for the lives of citizens and the society as a whole. Up to now, the evaluation of these policies has focussed on its economic effects. This dissertation aims at bringing a broader perspective to scientific policy-evaluation that considers economic as well as social, political or psychological consequences of public policies. The relevance of this argument is confirmed by the finding that labour market policies appear to have non-negligible effects along several different dimensions, which highlights that policy-goals often stand in a trade-off to each other. The main methodological innovation of this dissertation lies in the development of new research designs for the anaylsis of causal relations in social sciences.