Creating employment or keeping them busy? An evaluation of training programs for older workers in Germany

The authors analyze the effect of participation in short-term training measures on older German recipients of means-tested unemployment benefits. Their analysis uses administrative data of the German Federal Employment Agency, and they estimate the effects of participating in two types of short-term training--classroom and in-firm training--on different outcomes of the participants. Results show that classroom training is not effective in making participants independent of benefit receipt. It has a moderately positive effect on employment outcomes, which are highest for West German men. In contrast, in-firm training significantly raises the participants' likelihood of finding regular jobs and of being independent of unemployment benefit receipt.