The experience of unemployment puts individuals at risk of long-term negative scarring and the longer the unemployment spell, the greater the risk of negative scarring. In Sweden, labour market policies aim at reducing such risks in the form of unemployment benefits, active matching and active labour market policy programmes (ALMPs). However, there is frequent discussion regarding the extent to which these kinds of policies actually reduce the risk of negative scarring. It is often argued that the programmes are of poor quality, particularly during economic downturns, and participants are often not motivated for the task. Likewise, it is claimed that unemployment insurance tends to counteract a quick return to the regular labour market. One problem related to labour market policies is that it has been difficult to examine the impact of such policies. Studies often present results that appear scattered due to differences in what is actually being measured and methodological problems. The uniqueness of this thesis is that it is based on a large-scale longitudinal register of data that has provided important empirical information regarding the long-term effects of labour market policy investments. The quality of data has also enabled the use of evaluation techniques which largely can help to reduce the uncertainty of the findings. More precisely, the research questions examine (1) in what way the level of unemployment benefit functions as protection against unemployment scarring, (2) in what way the ALMPs protect long-term unemployed people from long-term unemployment scarring, (3) at what point in a business cycle the ALMPs are efficient and finally, (4) for whom do the ALMPs function to reduce the risk of negative scarring. In this thesis, scarring effects are measured as the risk of labour market exit, the risk of labour market instability and the risk of future negative wage trajectories. The methods used in most studies are Cox regressions in combination with instrumental variable analysis (the Heckman two-step procedure). The empirical findings indicate that ALMPs worked well to reduce such negative effects both in times of booms (1999) and recessions (1993) and particularly among the youngest and oldest actors on the labour market. They also function particularly well for people with a low level of education. However, it is important not to exclude unemployed people who have a high level of education, in the belief that ALMPs have nothing to offer them, since such people are particularly helped by ALMPs as regards reducing the risk of future labour market instability. It was also found that generous unemployment benefit helped to reduce the risk of future negative wage scarring. In addition to these findings, some mechanisms were identified which proved to be important tools for transforming policies into valuable resources for the unemployed. In this thesis, the value of the findings of these mechanisms is discussed from the perspective of the capability approach. Even if the same investments were made in all unemployed persons, the participants would respond differently to the investment. Some reasons for the inequality in outcomes were found within the programmes and were due to heterogeneity in the unemployment group but some reasons can actually be explained by the converters (mechanisms) that were identified in the studies. Thus, the results emphasise the importance of investing in labour market policies, particularly during economic downturns. This is the time when cuts in unemployment benefit do not help the unemployed back to the labour market since there are very few available jobs to apply for. It is also the time when the long-term unemployed should participate in ALMP-training in order to be prepared for new challenges when the labour market improves again. As a matter of fact, the results show that skills from ALMP-training have a bridging effect which indicates that these skills will be valuable on the labour market for at least another five years after the year of investment. The findings in this thesis are controversial since they differ from most research findings from the beginning of the 1990s which point to poor micro level outcomes. However, the long-term approach of this thesis is the main explanation for these new and different results.  It is argued here that a long-term approach is needed to find out the long-term effects because ALMP participation, particularly ALMP-training, is meant to be a long-term investment in human capital. A long period of time needs to pass between ALMP-investment and evaluation before the effects can show. Reported effects from ALMP investments at the beginning of the 1990s have often been measured on a short-term basis. It is not suggested that short-term effects should be ignored but it is argued that a short-term analysis provides only a fragmental description of reality, and long-term effects should be given greater priority than is usually the case since they affect the labour market prospects of the individuals over a long period of time. This thesis dispels the “myth” about the negative effects generated from ALMPs during the 1990s.

This PhD study centres on analysing the changing employment service portfolios available to disadvantaged people out of work in Britain and Germany. Looking at the recent wave of comparative studies on ‘activation’ reforms, it springs to mind that the question of the changing portfolio of ‘active’ labour market policy (ALMP) measures has received only little attention in the sense of a rigorous comparative analysis. In order to address that gap, this study develops a novel normative and analytical perspective for the study of ALMP, which then is applied to the empirical cases Britain and Germany. I first develop the concept of personalisation as the normative and analytical framework for the analysis of ALMP. I show that the diversity of ALMP portfolios, which is a precondition for a personalised service provision, can serve as a proxy for measuring personalisation. Equipped with this analytical tool, the analysis subsequently focuses on the changes to ALMP portfolios over the past 15 years in terms of diversity. It is shown that during this period both Britain and Germany reformed working-age benefits in a way that led to a closer integration of the benefit system at an institutional level. Taking the policy rhetoric that closer integration will lead to more ‘personalised’ (UK) or more ‘tailor-made’ (Germany) services as a starting point, I analyse whether these developments at an institutional level have indeed led to a more personalised, or more diverse, provision of employment services. This study looks in particular at the situation of those groups in the two countries who have been most affected by recent integration reforms. These have primarily been claimants of second-tier working-age benefits, namely incapacity related benefits in the UK, and ‘Sozialhilfe’ (SH, social assistance) and ‘Arbeitslosengeld II’ (ALGII, Unemployment Benefit II) in Germany. I find that in both countries, employment services for claimants of these second-tier benefits have become more diverse in the wake of the integration reforms of the past 10 to 15 years, thereby increasing their personalisation potential. However, the two countries have each followed very specific reform trajectories. While the volume and coverage of ALMP have increased in both countries, the portfolio of services for second-tier claimants today is much more diverse in Germany than in Britain. This is primarily due to the existence of a large volume of services directed at claimants more distant from the labour market that follow a social integration & employability approach. These services are more marginal in Britain, where measures that follow a work-first approach are dominant. This divergent development is indicative of major and persistent differences in terms of ideational context as well as institutional (operational) factors. New Public Management reforms have influenced operational policy to different degrees in the two countries, effectively limiting the diversity of employment services in Britain more than in Germany.

The last 15 years have seen governments in a number of mature welfare states attempting to reintegrate people out of work for reasons of sickness and disability into employment, principally through changes to the value and conditions of incapacity benefits and the provision of active labour market programmes. Whilst the academic interest in these changes has been considerable, this thesis begins by arguing that these studies hitherto have been satisfied to categorise these emerging regimes according to a familiar Work-first v Human Capital Development activation typology (for example, Peck & Theodore, 2001), or a variation upon that, according to the presence or absence of different activation services. They largely do not apply the insights that the broader activation literature has provided in recent years, particularly those on the governance of activation. Instead, this thesis proposes that it is better to examine recent changes through the lens of institutionalisation: how well-embedded employment-related support for sick and disabled claimants has become in the structure and functioning of welfare-to-work regimes for sick and disabled benefit claimants. Though not a concept much used in academic analysis of Active Labour Market Policy (ALMP), a case is made for the value of looking at, firstly, how well activating sick and disabled claimants becomes a national government labour market policy priority and secondly, how well the organisation and governance of active labour market programmes for this group support this, in additional to analyses of the services themselves. Working from what is already known about the factors that can influence a workless benefit claimant's access to employment support, the contention of such a framework is that the successful embedding of an activation strategy for sick and disabled claimants into national Labour Market Policy (LMP) is a function of the interaction of a range of factors. Crucial here is the distinction between ALMP for these claimants, and for other activation target groups – there is good evidence to believe that the changes made to activation governance to promote active work-search for the unemployed may, however unintentionally, militate against a comprehensive system of support for 'non-employed' jobseekers considered to be further from the labour market, claimants of incapacity benefits included. Alongside this framework, a case is made for being much clearer and more precise in describing what measures apply to which parts of the incapacity benefit claimant pool. In most countries, this is a very diverse population with several distinct sub-sets with different levels of distance from the labour market, ranging from those with very severe disabilities or health conditions; others with multiple employment barriers not all stemming directly from their condition (outdated skills, for example), and those whose employability is high, their disability or health condition notwithstanding. As a small number of studies have pointed out (Evans, 2001, for example), activation regimes – defined in this study as the set of services that are provided to help nonemployed sick and disabled benefit claimants back to work; and how these are organised; delivered; targeted and financed – 'sort and select' claimants, applying different types or more or less intensive support for different categorisations of claimants. An activation regime for the claimant group can thus be very inclusive or rather narrow, depending on the extent to which these sub-pools are catered for. To demonstrate the value of this framework in reaching a more accurate understanding of the nature of these emerging regimes relative to extant approaches, a cross-national comparison of activation of sick and disabled claimants in Denmark and the United Kingdom is offered. Whilst they are considered to be very nearly diametrically opposed in a number of key ways – their approaches to activation; benefit generosity and broader welfare regime contexts – when looked at using the institutionalisation framework, they emerge as more similar than expected. Regardless of their quite different starting points, they experience many of the same challenges in creating a system in which the employment activation of the full extent of the claimant group is a priority and where a sick or disabled benefit claimant's right to back-to-work support is secure.

The thesis conducts an analysis of active labour-market policy and its support in the framework of the European Social Fund. The first section is specialized in labour policy and described documents of European Union in this framework. The second section of the paper focuses on active labour-market policy -- its development, implementation, tool kit as well as its reaction to European Union requirements and a subsequent efficiency evaluation of a number of programmes aimed to support the active labour-market policy. The next section assesses the achievability of quantitative targets of the Lisbon strategy which the Czech Republic should meet by 2010, i.e. whether we are on track to meet these targets. We aim to determine the achievability of targets using an analysis of employment. The following important section looks at labour policy expenditures in the Czech Republic, their change over time and particularly after the European Union accession in 2004, since when the Czech Republic has been able to draw financial support from the European Social Fund. The last section therefore deals with the European Social Fund, in particular with the implementation of projects, assessment of their impact on employment growth and recommendations for improvements in the efficiency of their execution.

Following diploma thesis is focused on retraining as a form of vocational adult education and on its possibilities in the struggle against unemployment. This thesis aims to describe retraing in terms of being an effective measure of active labour-market policy as well as to examine thorougly the actual contribution of retraining scheme for increasing both employment rate and employability. This effort subsequently entails the disclosure of some weaknesses in the implementation of this measure. Diploma thesis therefore contains also some recommendation for improving the existing practice. The theoretical part of the thesis starts by providing general overview of fundamentals of a theme such as labour market, unemployment or labour policy. Then it moves on theoretical description of retraining scheme itself. Empirical part of the thesis is founded on analysis of the local labour market (the territory of the capital city Prague) and on the particular means of action in the implementation of retraing scheme here.

This Diploma thesis is a proposal of project for supporting employment of school leavers, which propose to financial support from structural fund of European Union. The objective of project is more efficient of active policy of employment – socially serviceable working station.

A frequent question in academic and non-academic research is how particular systems are formed, maintained, and potentially, changed. This dissertation explores the question above through the intersection between political economy and public policy, specifically on accumulation: how economic and social relations come to be, endure, adapt, or fail. This is reflected in a slew of theories, paradigms, and research programmes, yet most utilize a macro or meso lens and rarely look at ‘micro’ level phenomena and processes – those involving everyday interactions and people. At this level, a significant, yet absent, component is the way individuals may come to automatically think and act through receiving information conveyed in ways that promote internalization or automaticity. The ongoing question, then, is what regimes communicate and how they do so. I will examine the role of active labour market policy (ALMP) in sustaining contemporary accumulation trajectories in Canada by analyzing what it communicates to policy recipients in terms of how they should conceive of themselves as workers, their expectations of the market, and of the state. However, what public policy communicates does not, in and of itself, explain how people come to internalize particular ways of thinking and acting. As such, I combine policy analysis with cognitive psychology to examine what ‘everyday’ public policy components – such as websites, forms, and job search systems - communicate, and crucially, whether they do so in a way which is conducive to ‘automatic thought’ (e.g. ‘common sense’). / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation explores how public policy can shape how individuals automatically think and act, thereby informing their ‘common sense’ and rational thoughts. I will examines what Canadian active labour market policy (ALMP) communicates to policy recipients in terms of how they should conceive of themselves as workers, their expectations of the market, and of the state. I combine policy analysis with mechanisms derived from cognitive psychology to examine what ‘everyday’ public policy components – such as websites, forms, and job search systems - communicate, and crucially, whether they do so in a way which is conducive to ‘automatic thought’ (e.g. ‘common sense’). This approach fills in gaps political psychology, public policy, and the political economy of regimes.

The goal of the thesis "The proposal of the Employment Support with Utilization of Active Labour Market Policy" is the summary of how to use Active labour market policy with a focus on welfare service, following the proposal of the efficient use of the welfare services using funding from the European social fund.

The thesis deals with the active labour market policy in the Frýdek-Místek district, where is the problem of higher rates of unemployment and long-term unemployment. Active labour policy has an important role in solving the problem of unemployment in the region. The thesis describes the nature of the local labour market and assesses the active employment policy programs used in the years 2006 - 2010 in terms of their impact on employment and employability of participants. In particular, the thesis focuses on retraining, which is one of the most used tools of active employment policy, and monitors the creation of new jobs that directly affect the situation of individuals in the labour market. The thesis evaluates the targeting of retraining, which significantly affects their results. Using statistical data analysis methods are examined gross effects of retraining and monitored the effects of active employment policy to selected target groups of unemployed people.

Economic cycle has significantly affected the national as well as the international labour market and has caused increased unemployment which primarily concerns endangered groups of people on the labour market. This Thesis is based on the hypothesis that persons older than 50 years are more prone to be socially excluded due to long-term unemployment and a more complex return to job than younger groups of people. With respect to the continuous aging population and prolongation of retirement age, it is necessary to analyse the obstacles and options leading to longer job engagement. The theoretical part of the Thesis characterises the labour market and its imperfections using a descriptive method. In the analytical part, effectiveness and purposefulness of the tool of active employment politics in Jindřichův Hradec are investigated. Evaluation of the analysis follows. The major aim of this Diploma Thesis is to identify the status of the social group in question in the Czech labour market via secondary analysis and also to evaluate to what extend active employment politics contributes to such a status in the regional labour market in Jindřichův Hradec.