More money, more effect? Employment effects of job search services of different intensity

Despite being widely regarded as effective labor market policies, the impact of job search services on employment remains contested. Recent research challenges the assumption that the intensity of such programs is directly related with its effectiveness. We evaluate the effects of two treatments of an Italian active labour market program called Assegno per il Lavoro. Each intervention is made up of a voucher to fund job search assistance and a performance-based payment related to job search intermediation. Participants are assigned to a certain group with a certain treatment endowment that is increasing as a function of a scoring variable. Leveraging this design, we applied a regression discontinuity analysis to estimate effects on both employment duration and employment quality. First, being assigned to an intermediate-dose treatment slightly increased the probability of finding an open-ended employment, but this did not generate an increment in the average of days worked. Second, being assigned to a high-dose treatment only augmented the mean and the median of the distribution of days worked during the second semester and it did with a greater prevalence of short temporary contracts. Third, different treatment assignments barely changed the reception of job search assistance, so the impacts stem from job search intermediation. The main policy implication is a shift from a focus on intensity to a focus on other design features.