The Impact of Subsidised Employment on Exiting Unemployment in Poland: An Analysis Based on Unconditional Competing Risks Models

The main objectives of employment programmes implemented in Poland by labour offices are professional activisation of the unemployed and reduction of structural mismatches in the labour market. Demand-oriented instruments include intervention works, public works, socially useful works and funds for undertaking business activity and for equipping the workplace. They constitute the so-called subsidised employment. Costly implementation of the programmes forces evaluation studies and research on the effectiveness of these instruments. The aim of the article is to use unconditional risk models of competing events (Unconditional Competing Risks – UCR) to analyse the impact of subsidised employment on the probability and intensity of exiting unemployment. The study used individual data of persons registered in the Poviat Labour Office in Szczecin. The analysis showed that the impact of subsidised employment on the probability and intensity of exiting unemployment was marginal. the resignation from mediation of labour office was a very strong cause for de-registering the unemployed. This may indicate that the willingness to take up employment was not the main cause for the unemployed to register with the office and that the unemployed were not always interested in the proposed forms of activisation.