In this study the resemblances in the preparatory work that was conducted before the introduction of the Social Welfare Act (socialtjänstlagen) in 1982 as well as before the current legislation that came into power in 2001 has been studied. The aim of this study has been to examine the similarities and differences in preparatory work originating from two contrasting time periods using the model for thematic analysis suggested by Braun & Clarke (2006). The theories that were utilized discuss power, principles of governing and distribution of responsibilities, neo-liberalism, street-level bureaucracy and stigma. An important theoretical component consists of Bacchi and Evelines (2010) “WPR-approach” which brings up how the problem is handled linguistically. The empirical findings spanned over three levels: government, municipality and individuals and demonstrate theoretical models of explanation for these. In the empirical material no solutions on a structural or individual level were presented, instead moral and personal responsibility was accentuated as the path out of poverty. This study showed that the individual is subjectified, stigmatised and renounced which make it even more difficult to break free from the terms of aid.

The purpose of the study is to gain an increased understanding of individuals who havereceived income support. The thesis has the following three problem statements: The perceived contact with administrators? In what way the individual perceives the given support from the surroundings? What social consequences were experienced during the time with incomesupport? Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted to achieve the purpose. The respondents reconstructed their experiences regarding receival of income support. The respondents that participated have previously received income support and are todayproviding for themselves in the form of salary from work or study grants. The collectedempirical data have been produced based on a qualitative research method. The theoretical starting points that have been used are based on trust and reliance, Sense ofcoherence and the Compass of shame.The results indicates that the contact with the administrator was of significance for the individual and the value of maintaining the same contact was regarded highly. Furthermore, social support is noted as health-promoting as the respondents' relationships with family and friends have proven to be meaningful, manageable, and understandable in relation to the studied social phenomena. In some cases, have reducedinteraction occurred with friends. Geographical circumstances have affected the reduction of interactions, which was perceived as strained for some respondents.The conclusions related to the results were that the interviewed persons felt limitedregarding their own possibilities for maneuvering the situation in relation to receivingincome support. This experience was expressed as uncomfortable and shameful. / Syftet med denna studie är att få en ökad förståelse för individens upplevda erfarenheter av att erhålla försörjningsstöd. Studien har besvarat följande tre frågeställningar: Hur upplevdes kontakten med handläggare? På vilket sätt uppfattar den enskilde stöd från omgivningen? Vilka sociala konsekvenser av försörjningsstödet upplevdes? Sju semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes, där respondenterna fått rekonstruera sina erfarenheter gällande erhållandet av försörjningsstöd. De deltagande respondenterna har tidigare erhållit försörjningsstöd och försörjer sig idag med antingen lön från arbete eller studiebidrag. Den insamlade empirin har framställts utifrån en kvalitativ forskningsmetod. De teoretiska utgångspunkter som har används är tillit och förtroende, KASAM och skamkompassen. Resultatet visade på att kontakten med handläggaren var betydande för den enskilde och värdet att behålla samma kontakt värderades högt. Vidare uppmärksammas det sociala stödet som hälsofrämjande då respondenternas relationer till familj och vänner visat sig vara meningsfullt, hanterbart och begripligt i relation till det studerade sociala fenomenet. Inte i alla fall har minskad interaktion förekommit med vännerna, däremot har geografiska omständigheter påverkat den minskade interaktionen vilket upplevdes ansträngt för en del respondenter. Slutsatsen indikerar att respondenterna upplevde det begränsade personliga handlingsutrymme som besvärligt i relation med försörjningsstödet. Upplevelsen av att erhålla försörjningsstöd målades upp som obekvämt och skamfullt

With an explicit focus on how power is enacted and what this produces in the everyday lives of chronically ill women living on B.C. disability income support (BC Benefits), this research is located at the contested juxtaposition of what I refer to as three fields of possibility; feminism, poststructuralism and critical disability studies. Each of these fields suggests methodological, empirical and interpretive readings that enable me to produce different knowledge, differently, about disabled women’s lives. Using verbatim narrative accounts from in-depth interviews focused on how each of four participants live their lives, take care of themselves, and make sense of and respond to the government policy and practices to which they are subject, reveals everyday, embodied practices of the self that constitute their subjectivities as disabled women. Together, these accounts along with critically interpretive reflections reveal/expose/make visible the lives of these women in response to exercises of power in ways that unseat, unsettle and disrupt taken-for-granted understandings of those who are disabled, female and poor. Along with explicating power relations in the lives of disabled women and what these produce, I also link these critically to their health, socio-economic well-being and citizenship, while creating a disruptive reading that destabilizes common-sense notions about disabled women securing B.C. provincial income support benefits. Thus my research purposes and those of my disability activism are melded as these intersect within the (often-contested) borders of poststructural and social justice terrain. Despite public claims by the B. C. government to foster the independence, participation in community and citizenship of disabled people in B.C., the intersection of government policy and practices and how they are read and taken up by the women, produce profound uncertainty in their lives, such that these women become uncertain subjects. Living poorly, they experience structural poverty, compromised well-being and “dis-citizenship” (Devlin & Pothier, 2006), all inconvenient facts reflecting a marked disjuncture between how government programs are publicly represented and their strategic effects. / Graduate

Abstract The study aimed at describing and investigating the quality and dynamics of the problem of exclusion among children and young people in the light of social care documents. The sample consisted of the documents on 990 customers of child welfare and income support services aged below 25 in 1992–1997 as descriptions of the children’s and young persons’ situations and courses of life in Finland after the depression of the early 1990’s. The attention focused especially on the various problems in the children’s and young people’s welfare as a basis for social services customership and as descriptors of their exclusion. The life situations of social services customers were generally determined by their unstable position in the labour market and the limitations of their financial resources, in addition to which various subgroups in the sample had their own problems. In child welfare, customership was often based on the mother’s alcohol/drug use or mental problems and neglect of child care or the young person’s problems with school and alcohol or drugs. In terms of income support, the need for support was most often based on the young person’s exclusion from working life and on the related financial difficulties. Important forms of support in both child welfare and income support included customer counselling and financial support. Although social services customership was related particularly to accumulated problems, the customers did not form a uniform group. The documents revealed nine types of customership based on their life control and dimensions of exclusion: life control, integration, minor customership, elimination, danger of exclusion, serious danger of exclusion, marginalisation, segregation and exclusion. The differences between them were connected with differences in the quality and degree of the customers’ welfare problems and in the customers’ power of influence and possibilities for social support. The closer to life control a person’s type of customership was situated, the more she or he could exert an influence using his/her own resources or the support of his/her close community. Moving towards exclusion, the network of control around the customer tightened and the situation was determined ever more clearly by problems, obligations and control. The various types of customership described the customers’ life situations at certain moments, but also at the various stages of the exclusion or survival process and when the life situations were viewed from different perspectives. The exclusion of children and young people was manifested in the current study above all as danger of exclusion. It was about a nightmare scenario of the postmodern society following the both/and logic which was connected not only with the various problems of the social services customers but also with the exclusion of children and adolescents from what we see as normal growth and development. Children who were customers of the social services did not necessarily have the opportunity to be children, and young people did not necessarily grow into adults. The threats of exclusion and possibilities of survival had an impact on the children’s and adolescents’ lives on a situation-by-situation basis and also simultaneously depending on which and whose viewpoint the situation was viewed from. Light and shadow penetrated each other in their life as their life situations took shape in the dimensions of life control and exclusion. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvata ja selvittää lasten ja nuorten syrjäytymisongelman laatua ja dynamiikkaa sosiaalihuollon asiakirjojen valossa. Tutkimusaineistona olivat 990 alle 25-vuotiaan sosiaalihuollon lastensuojelun tai toimeentulotuen asiakkaan asiakirjat vuosilta 1992–1997 kuvauksina lasten ja nuorten elämäntilanteista ja elämänkulusta 1990-luvun alun laman jälkeisessä Suomessa. Huomion kohteina olivat erityisesti lasten ja nuorten erilaiset hyvinvoinnin ongelmat sosiaalihuollon asiakkuuden perusteina ja lasten ja nuorten syrjäytymisen kuvaajina. Sosiaalihuollon asiakkaiden elämäntilanteita määrittivät yleisesti epävakaa työmarkkina-asema ja taloudellisten resurssien rajallisuus, joiden lisäksi kohdejoukon eri osaryhmillä oli omia ongelmiaan. Lastensuojelussa asiakkuutta perusteltiin usein äidin päihde- ja mielenterveysongelmilla ja lapsenhoidon laiminlyönnillä tai nuoren koulu- ja päihdeongelmilla. Toimeentulotuessa nuorten tuen tarpeen perusteena olivat puolestaan useimmiten nuorten työelämän ulkopuolelle jääminen ja siihen liittyvät taloudelliset vaikeudet. Keskeisiä tukimuotoja sekä lastensuojelussa että toimeentulotuessa olivat asiakkaan neuvonta ja taloudellinen tuki. Vaikka sosiaalihuollon asiakkuus liittyi erityisesti kasautuneisiin ongelmiin, eivät asiakkaat olleet yhtenäinen ryhmä. Asiakirja-aineistosta löytyi yhdeksän elämänhallinnan ja syrjäytymisen ulottuvuudella jäsentyvää asiakkuustyyppiä: elämänhallinta, integraatio, pikkuasiakkuus, karsiutuminen, syrjäytymisvaara, vakava syrjäytymisvaara, marginalisaatio, segregaatio ja syrjäytyminen. Niiden väliset erot liittyivät eroihin asiakkaiden hyvinvoinnin ongelmien laadussa ja asteessa sekä asiakkaiden vaikutusmahdollisuuksissa ja mahdollisuuksissa sosiaaliseen tukeen. Mitä lähemmäksi elämänhallintaa asiakkuustyyppi sijoittui, sitä enemmän asiakas pystyi vaikuttamaan asioihin joko omien voimavarojensa tai lähiyhteisön tuen turvin. Kohti syrjäytymistä siirryttäessä kontrollin verkko asiakkaan ympärillä kiristyi ja tilannetta määrittivät yhä selvemmin ongelmat, pakot ja kontrolli. Eri asiakkuustyypit kuvasivat asiakkaiden elämäntilanteita tiettynä hetkenä, mutta myös syrjäytymis- ja selviytymisprosessin eri vaiheissa ja elämäntilanteita eri näkökulmista tarkasteltaessa. Lasten ja nuorten syrjäytyminen näyttäytyi tutkimuksessa ennen muuta syrjäytymisvaarana. Siinä oli kyse myöhäismodernin yhteiskunnan sekä–että logiikkaa noudattavasta uhkakuvasta, joka liittyi paitsi sosiaalihuollon asiakkaiden erilaisiin ongelmiin, myös lasten ja nuorten syrjäytymiseen normaalina pidettävästä kasvusta ja kehityksestä. Sosiaalihuollon asiakkaina olevat lapset eivät välttämättä saaneet olla lapsia ja nuoret eivät välttämättä kasvaneet aikuisiksi. Syrjäytymisen uhat ja selviytymisen mahdollisuudet vaikuttivat lasten ja nuorten elämään tilanteittain ja myös samanaikaisesti riippuen siitä, mistä ja kenen näkökulmasta tilannetta tarkasteltiin. Valo ja varjo läpäisivät lasten ja nuorten elämässä toisiaan heidän elämäntilanteidensa jäsentyessä elämänhallinnan ja syrjäytymisen ulottuvuudella.

The aim of this study is to gain an understanding for the factors behind the successful establishment in the Swedish labor market for foreign-born women who have a college or university degree from their home countries. This has been achieved by applying a qualitative method, whereas semi-structured interviews with five foreign-born women have been conducted. The theory used in the analysis are the theories of "social and cultural capital" and "empowerment". The findings of the study show that level of education, work experience, language skills affect foreign-born opportunities to enter the labor market. Moreover, the findings show that the interviewees perceived several obstructions to their inclusion in the Swedish labour market. These include language barriers and lack of social networks. The interviews also show that people who have an academic education from their home countries need to adapt their education to the Swedish labor market to find a qualified job. The results of the study also show that new arrivals need to apply for income support during the first period in Sweden, due to the fact that they lack their own income and assets.

This study explores the experiences of the Swedish front-line social workers (socialsekreterare) in the municipal income support unit, Young Adults, monthly assessing the income support applications as well as daily processing the activation programs for young adult clients with mental ill-health combined with social-medicinal vulnerabilities, also referred to as young adults with complex needs. Furthermore, this study aims to illuminate the ever changing conditions of the Swedish welfare state and its underlying driving forces through the lens of the social workers. 9 Semi-structured distance interviews with 11 social workers from 6 municipalities belonging to 5 regions in Sweden, were conducted for the collection of qualitative data. It has been analyzed by the inductive-deductive coding as well as a theoretical frame consisting of concepts such as discretiona and advocacy of M. Lipsky, and reciprocal interaction (Wechselwirkung), form and contents, and call of G.Simmel. The result and analysis show that the rehabilitative approach based on the interactions and relations with the clients, is prevalent through the social workers’ processing of the activation program. It seems to be effective in a dyad, between the social workers and the client while the social workers’ discretion is maximized for the utilization of the agency (unit) activation resources. However, it proved not to be as effective in a triad or more when an extern agent outside of the unit, Young Adults begins to be involved. The tension is a fact and the social workers’ discretion is minimized when they have to process the activation program for the clients who are neither “active enough” to have a job in the ordinary labor market, nor “sick enough” to be eligible for the stately activity compensation (aktivitetsersättning) from the Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) which heavily relies on the medicinal expertise for its decision making. The social workers’ experience to fail to deliver the best possible results out of the activation programs, and the client relationship built on the rehabilitative approach turns out to be unsustainable, which can indicate the discrepancy between the rehabilitative approach as well as the activation programs, as content, and the unit, Young Adults, as form. Even though the social workers daily carry the ideological as well as the social-political tensions between the medicalization and the activation through the ever changing reality of the Swedish welfare state, their mandate to make an impact on the decision making of the activity compensation program, is rather limited, reflecting the Swedish welfare state’s expectation for the professionalism of the social workers. Rather striking that the social workers, however, confess that they in spite of the pressure of organizational efficiency as well as socio-economic discourse of digitalization undermining the concept of the unit, Young Adults, are not willing to give up the rehabilitative approach for the client’s sake but also to protect their unit, Young Adults, which postulate that they are not the gatekeepers in the agency but the advocate for the clients. In this moment, they also seem to know, and even have the call, the essential, if not mandatory, element needed to be landed in the perfect society of G. Simmel.

Cette thèse a été réalisée en cotutelle Université de Montréal (UdeM) - Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). L'auteur a bénéficié de bourses doctorales provenant du Fonds national de la recherche scientifique (FNRS-Belgique), du Fonds de recherche du Québec-Société culture (FRQSC), et du Centre de recherche Léa-Roback sur les inégalités de santé de Montréal. / Les politiques de soutien au revenu des ménages se déclinent sous formes de mesures variées mises en place dans le cadre du système de protection sociale. Ces politiques influencent considérablement le revenu et les conditions de vie des ménages les plus vulnérables. Elles constituent un levier majeur pour réduire la pauvreté et les inégalités de revenu entre ménages. De ce fait, elles contribuent à améliorer la santé des populations et à réduire les inégalités sociales de santé (ISS) dès la naissance. L’évaluation de l’impact des politiques sociales sur les ISS dans différents contextes constitue une tâche complexe, du fait notamment de la difficulté, voire l’impossibilité, de mettre en place des études randomisées à grande échelle. Les variations des politiques sociales selon les pays constituent des opportunités pour mener des études comparatives sur base d’expériences naturelles. En partant d’un constat sur les limites des études comparatives habituelles, nous avons proposé une démarche de recherche visant à mieux étudier les spécificités des contextes afin d’expliquer les mécanismes par lesquels la combinaison des politiques de soutien au revenu influence la pauvreté des ménages et contribue aux ISS à la naissance à Bruxelles et à Montréal. Ce protocole de recherche a fait l’objet d’un 1er article. Le cœur de la thèse comprend trois parties. La première partie porte sur la comparaison des politiques d’aide sociale et d’allocations familiales en Belgique et au Québec et analyse les impacts sur l’intensité de la pauvreté des ménages à l’aide sociale dans les deux contextes. L’analyse se base sur la méthode des familles-types. Cette méthode consiste à calculer et comparer le revenu disponible de différents types de ménages. L’intensité de la pauvreté des ménages a été estimée selon le nombre d’enfants et la situation de couple. Pour chaque type de ménage, elle correspond à la différence relative entre le revenu disponible du ménage et le seuil de pauvreté relative. Les résultats montrent une intensité de la pauvreté plus marquée au Québec qu’en Belgique. Dans chaque contexte, on constate également que l’intensité de la pauvreté des ménages varie considérablement selon le nombre d’enfants et la situation de couple. Ce travail a fait l’objet d’un 2ème article. La deuxième partie porte sur la description des inégalités de santé à la naissance à Bruxelles et à Montréal. Les hypothèses de travail découlent des résultats obtenus à l’étape précédente. Deux études de cas ont été réalisées et analysées dans une perspective comparative. Les bases de données utilisées proviennent du couplage de données administratives issues des registres de naissance et des données de sécurité sociale. Les résultats ont donné lieu aux 3ème et 4ème articles. Le 3ème article concerne la population générale. Dans chaque région, des modèles de régression logistique ont été élaborés afin d’étudier l’association entre les issues défavorables de la grossesse (faible poids à la naissance, prématurité) et le statut socioéconomique (éducation de la mère et revenu). L’ampleur des inégalités de santé est plus marquée à Montréal qu’à Bruxelles et celles-ci diffèrent également selon l’origine de la mère. Le 4ème article porte spécifiquement sur la population bénéficiaire de l’aide sociale. Il compare l’association entre le faible poids à la naissance et la composition de ménage dans chaque région. On constate que les inégalités face au FPN varient selon le nombre d’enfants et la situation de couple entre les deux contextes, dans le même sens que les différences observées au niveau de la pauvreté. La troisième partie explore davantage les différences constatées à l'étape précédente selon l’immigration. Dans chaque région, elle compare l’impact du SES sur la santé périnatale chez différents groupes d’immigrés et les chez les mères nées en Belgique ou au Canada. Les résultats ont donné lieu aux 5ème et 6ème article de la thèse. L’analyse souligne l’importance de tenir compte des enjeux liés à l’immigration pour mieux expliquer la contribution des politiques de soutien au revenu aux ISS à la naissance. Cette thèse constitue une contribution unique. Dans deux régions où les taux de pauvreté et les prévalences des issues de la grossesse sont comparables dans la population générale, on constate des différences notables quant aux inégalités de santé à la naissance. Les politiques de soutien au revenu dans les deux contextes contribuent à expliquer ces différences. L’analyse démontre la nécessité de remédier aux insuffisances de ces politiques dans les deux contextes. Finalement, elle souligne les défis de la réduction de la pauvreté. Ces défis touchent à différents domaines, notamment la conciliation travail-famille, le marché du travail, l’immigration et les inégalités économiques. Mots-clés : Pauvreté, Inégalités sociales de santé, Politiques sociales, Etat-Providence, Evaluation d’impact en santé, Expériences naturelles, Inégalités de revenu, Faible poids à la naissance, Santé périnatale, Politiques de soutien au revenu. / Income support policies significantly influence the income and living conditions of the most vulnerable households. They constitute a major lever for reducing poverty and income inequalities between households. As a result, they contribute to improving the health of populations and reducing social inequalities in health (SIH) starting from birth. Assessing the impact of social policies on SIH in different contexts is a complex task, due in particular to the difficulty, if not impossibility, of setting up large-scale randomised studies. Varying social policies in different countries provide opportunities for comparative studies on the issue, based on natural experiments. Starting from an observation on the limitations of the usual comparative studies, we have proposed a research approach aiming to better study the specificities of contexts, which would allow us to explain the mechanisms by which the combination of income support policies influences household poverty and contributes to SIH at birth in Brussels and Montreal. This research protocol was the subject of a first article. This core of this thesis consists of three parts. The first deals with the comparison of welfare and family allowance policies in Belgium and Quebec and analyses their impact on the intensity of poverty of welfare households in both contexts. The analysis is based on the model family method, which consists of calculating and comparing the disposable income of different types of households. The intensity of household poverty was estimated according to the number of children and marital status. For each household type, the intensity of poverty corresponds to the relative difference between the household's disposable income and the relative poverty threshold. The results show a higher intensity of poverty in Quebec than in Belgium. It is also found that, in each context, the intensity of household poverty varies considerably depending on the number of children and marital status. This work was the subject of a second article. The second part of this thesis focuses on the description of health inequalities at birth in Brussels and Montreal. The working hypotheses are derived from the results obtained in the previous stage. Two case studies were carried out and analysed in a comparative perspective. The databases used come from a combination of administrative data from birth records and social security data. The results led to the third and fourth articles. The third article concerns itself with the general population. Logistic regression models were developed for each region to study the association between adverse pregnancy outcomes (low birth weight, prematurity) and socioeconomic status (mother's education and income levels). The magnitude of health inequalities is greater in Montreal than in Brussels and also differs according to the mother's origin. The fourth article focuses specifically on welfare recipients. It compares the association between low birth weight and household composition in each region. We can see that inequalities in LBW vary according to the number of children and marital status in both contexts, much like the differences observed in terms of poverty. The third part further explores the differences observed in the previous stage according to immigration. It compares the impact of SES on perinatal health among different immigrant groups and among mothers born in Belgium or Canada. The results led to the fifth and sixth papers of the thesis. The analysis underlines the importance of taking the specific issues linked to immigration into account to better explain the role that income support policies play in SIH at birth. This thesis is a unique contribution. There are notable differences in health inequalities at birth between two regions with similar poverty rates and levels of prevalence of unfavourable pregnancy outcomes among the general population. The impact of income support policies in Belgium and Quebec on the intensity of household poverty helps explain these differences. Our analysis demonstrates the need for public policies that address the inadequacy of the current income support measures in both regions. Lastly, it emphasises that the causes of poverty are interdependent and touch on various issues, including work-family balance, job insecurity, immigration and economic inequalities. Keywords: Poverty, Social inequalities in health, Social policies, Welfare state, Health impact assessment, Natural experiments, Income inequalities, Low birth weight, Perinatal health, Income support policies.

Les politiques actives du marché du travail (PAMT) sont considérées de plus en plus comme nécessaires pour renforcer le lien entre protection sociale et création de sources de revenu plus durables dans l’objectif d’améliorer la qualité de l’emploi mais aussi, de façon plus générale, les conditions de vie. En conséquence, ces mesures jouent un rôle essentiel aujourd’hui dans les programmes de politique publique de la plupart des économies avancées et voient leur importance augmenter fortement dans les pays émergents et dans les pays en développement, où elles ne sont pas encore aussi bien établies. Il reste toutefois encore beaucoup à apprendre sur l’impact de ces mesures, en particulier sur le rôle des caractéristiques de leur mise en œuvre. Cette thèse entend contribuer à ce débat en étudiant l’efficacité des PAMT et le rôle des systèmes de mise en œuvre pour ce qui est de leur impact à la fois dans les pays développés et dans les pays émergents et en développement.Le premier chapitre examine sous un angle macroéconomique l’efficacité des PAMT à améliorer les résultats sur le marché du travail au sein des pays de l’OCDE, en particulier pour les travailleurs peu qualifiés. Il est capital de saisir de façon empirique l’effet net global des PAMT sur l’ensemble du marché du travail, car ces politiques entraînent souvent des phénomènes de substitution, de déplacement et d’autres conséquences indirectes. Les deux chapitres suivants cherchent à déterminer si les PAMT doivent être encore étendues dans les pays émergents et en développement. Pour ce faire, les effets au niveau individuel de deux types de PAMT en Amérique latine sont étudiés, en s’appuyant sur la présence de règles d’attribution intéressantes et de données de qualité au niveau individuel. Ainsi, le deuxième chapitre s’intéresse plus particulièrement aux conséquences à moyen et long terme d’un programme de workfare péruvien, l’une des mesures d’activation les moins étudiées, bien que fréquemment mise en œuvre dans la région, afin d’évaluer la durabilité de ses effets. Le troisième chapitre s’intéresse à l’introduction d’un ensemble complet de PAMT en Argentine, dans le but d’aider les bénéficiaires éligibles d’un programme de transfert de fonds sous conditions à trouver des sources de revenus plus stables. Dans les deux cas, l’accent est mis sur les effets sur la qualité de l’emploi et sur la manière dont la mise en œuvre des mesures conditionne leur impact.Ces travaux montrent que les PAMT sont utiles mais à condition qu’elles s’accompagnent d’une conception et d’une mise en œuvre appropriées. Les résultats confirment l’importance de ces facteurs pour ce qui est de l’efficacité des mesures tant dans les pays de l’OCDE que dans ceux d’Amérique latine étudiés. L’ampleur des effets dépend du type de mesure étudiée et de la catégorie de bénéficiaires visée. / Today, active labor market policies (ALMPs) are increasingly seen as a necessary tool to strengthen the link between social protection and the creation of more sustainable sources of income with a view to increasing work quality but also improving living conditions more broadly. As a result, the role of ALMPs in policy agendas remains high in most advanced economies and has increased dramatically in emerging and developing countries, where ALMPs are still less established. Despite this, there is still a lot to be learned regarding the impact of these policies, particularly with regards to the role of implementation characteristics. My dissertation aims to contribute to this debate by looking at the effectiveness of ALMPs and the role of delivery systems in shaping their impact in both, developed and emerging and developing countries.It starts by examining the effectiveness of ALMPs in OECD countries in improving labor market outcomes, especially for low-skilled individuals, from a macroeconomic perspective (Chapter 1). Capturing empirically the overall net effect of ALMPs on the wide labor market is of upmost importance, since the role of ALMPs frequently involves substitution, displacement and other indirect effects. Then, the following two chapters aim to assess whether ALMPs should be leveraged further in emerging and developing countries, by investigating the individual-level effects of two different types of ALMPs in Latin America, exploiting the availability of interesting assignment rules and good-quality individual-level data. Chapter 2 focuses on the medium- to long-term effects of a Peruvian workfare program, one of the least studied ALMPs in the region albeit commonly implemented, to assess the sustainability of these type of programs’ effects. Chapter 3 then looks at the provision of a comprehensive package of ALMPs in Argentina, implemented to support eligible beneficiaries of a conditional cash transfer program in finding more stable income opportunities. In both cases, the focus is placed on the effects on work quality and on the role of design and implementation in shaping the effects.My research suggests that ALMPs are relevant but mostly through appropriate design and implementation aspects. The results confirm the importance of these factors in ensuring effectiveness both in OECD and the Latin American countries assessed. The size of effects depends on the type of policy assessed and on the beneficiary group.