People
Vincent Bodart, Muriel Dejemeppe, Bruno Van der Linden
Research Projects
| Sponsor | Project Title | IRES Promoters | IRES Researchers | Beginning | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BELSPO-BRAIN | The Belgian Short-time Work scheme: Economic and Psychological Impacts | Muriel Dejemeppe | March 2021 | 2025 |
Project description
This research studies the impact of the Belgian short-time work (STW) compensation scheme (knownas “temporary unemployment” in Belgium) on economic and psychological outcomes in the short and longer term. STW is a policy instrument installed at the federal levelto avoid the costly process of separation and re-hiring during the temporary reduction in production and demand and may thereby also avoid the bankruptcy of firms. From the employees’ perspective it avoids the social cost of unemployment and reintegration into the labour market. STW has had particular resonance during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the peak of the lockdown in April 2020, as many as 1.167 million people -about 30% of eligible employees -benefited from a Corona version of STW for at least one day. As highlighted in the Call for proposal, it is of high policy relevance to investigate the short-and medium term consequencesof STW on the labour market given the substantial public expenditure implications. Future reforms of the policyneed to build on sound scientific evidenceof the factors for success of STW arrangements as responseto cyclical fluctuations.Before completing, please read carefully the Information File Call 2020-2021, the Submission and Evaluation Guidelinesand the Budget rules.Do not forget to use the Gender Checklistto take into accountall the gender aspects throughout the proposal.BRAIN-BE 2.0 -Call for proposals 2020-20212/42The proposal will mobilize two disciplines(economics and psychology). We will look at similar research questions, yet from a different angle, with the focus in psychological research being how STW is appraised rather than intended or implemented. The research will imply cooperationbetween research partners of different communities and universities in Belgium. The team is well balanced in terms of gender and expertise. The economists Bart Cockx (UGent) and Muriel Dejemeppe (UCLouvain) are renown experts in the field of the evaluation of labour market policies. The psychologists Nele De Cuyper and Hans De Witte (KULeuven) and Florence Stinglhamber (UCLouvain) are renown experts in different disciplines of work and organisational psychology, including occupational health psychology, personnel psychology and career research. Beyond mobilizing two scientific disciplines to analyse the efficiency of STW arrangements, the project will address some specific research questions through a mixed methods study. In particular, to investigate the effect of the Corona STW scheme on the career prospects of the targeted employees from a broad perspective, both micro-econometric evaluation methods using register files and longitudinal cross-lagged surveys will be implemented. Their results will be thoroughly compared and discussed.
| Sponsor | Project Title | IRES Promoters | IRES Researchers | Beginning | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banque nationale |
Scrapping benefits for youth: Does it brings jobs or just misery |
Bruno Van der Linden and Muriel Dejemeppe | 2017 | 2021 |
Project description
This project studies the impact of the prospect of a loss of eligibility to UI benefits on the transition to employment and some other destinations of young unemployed individuals. Measuring the impact on schooling decisions is also part of the research project. We exploit a policy change in Belgium that occurred in 2015, whereby some young school-leavers lost UI eligibility, while others did not, using a Difference-in-Difference and Triple difference approaches.
| Sponsor | Project Title | IRES promoters | IRES Researchers | Beginning | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IWEPS | Labour Market Integration of Low-Skilled Youths in Wallonia: The Role of Information, Income Support and Hiring Subsidies | Muriel Dejemeppe | 2019 | 2023 |
Project description
This research seeks to evaluate, using microeconometric evaluation methods, the role of various and complementary support schemes for low- skilled youth integration on the labour market in Wallonia, a primarily French-speaking region in the southern part of Belgium. The set of schemes that are evaluated ranges from disseminating information in schools about job opportunities and labour market programmes for young school-leavers, hiring subsidies targeted at low-skilled unemployed youths, to financially support those who are long-term unemployed. The analysis is based on both a quasi-experimental approach (difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity design) applied to administrative individual data, and an experimental approach that randomizes information dissemination at the vocational high school level and allows to evaluate its effect on the labour market trajectories of young school-leavers.
| Sponsor | Project Title | IRES promoters | IRES Researchers | Beginning | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FNR | The Effect of Schengen, the Euro and Local Labour Markets: A Causal Analysis on Cross-Border Workers in Europe | Muriel Dejemeppe and Bruno van der Linden | 2018 | 2021 |
Project description
This research programme studies the choice of becoming a cross-border worker. Natural experiments implemented in Europe are exploited. The rst work package assesses the impact of the Schengen agreement and the single currency on labour market outcomes of individuals living in the border regions of Europe. The second and third work packages assess the effect of local labour market conditions on cross-border employment. These packages focus on the Belgian- Luxembourgish border. They look at the consequences of the introduction of a Belgian hiring subsidy scheme targeted at low-educated young jobseekers and at the 2012 reform of the Belgian unemployment insurance.