Do Lower Caseloads Improve the Performance of Public Employment Services? New Evidence from German Employment Offices
利用德国就业局在14个办公室增雇490名个案工作者的试点，研究发现降低个案量降低了当地失业率和失业持续时间，并提高了再就业率，其机制包括加强监控、增加制裁和强化搜索努力。
Abstract The caseworker‐to‐clients ratio is an important, but understudied, policy parameter that affects both the quality and cost of public employment services that help job seekers find employment. We exploit a large‐scale pilot by Germany's employment agency, which hired 490 additional caseworkers in 14 of its 779 offices. We find that lowering caseloads caused a decrease in the rate and duration of local unemployment as well as a higher re‐employment rate. Disentangling the mechanisms that contributed to this improvement, we find that offices with lowered caseloads increased monitoring and imposed more sanctions but also intensified search efforts and registered additional vacancies.