Estimating the Impacts of Area Regeneration Programmes in Scotland on Health and Unemployment: a quasi-experimental approach

Daryll Archibald (La Trobe University, Mebourne, Australia), Zhiqiang Feng (University of Edinburgh, UK) and Elspeth Graham (University of St Andrews, UK) published in People, Palce and Policy Volume 13 Issue 1 (2019)

Abstract

The last three decades have seen significant investment in area-based initiatives in the UK to regenerate areas experiencing multiple disadvantage. However, there is a dearth of robust evidence on the impacts that area regeneration has on residents’ lives. This is particularly so in the case of the Scottish Area Regeneration Partnership (SARP) Programmes initiated in the mid-1990s, the original evaluation of which was beset by a lack of baseline data and poor data collection through the life of the programmes.

This study investigated if residents who lived in SARP areas had improved health and employment outcomes compared to individuals living in similarly disadvantaged areas that had not been subject to regeneration over a ten-year period (1991-2001). A quasi experiment was undertaken using data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study.

Propensity score matching was used to identify comparator areas and a Difference in Differences analysis was conducted to investigate the impacts of the SARP programmes for three outcomes: limiting long-term illness, hospital admissions and unemployment. No positive (or negative) programme impact was found on any of the outcomes assessed. Thus, residents in SARP areas over the study period did not see their health and employment prospects improve compared with residents in similarly disadvantaged non-regeneration comparator areas.

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Making work pay for the indebted? Assessing the effects of debt services on welfare recipients

an article by Pierre Koning (VU University Amsterdam, IZA and Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) published in Labour Economics Volume 34 (June 2015)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of an intervention that was targeted at a specific group of Dutch Social Assistance (SA) recipients with debt problems. Since a large share of the income gains of work resumption is earmarked for creditors, these individuals generally experienced a strong a priori disincentive to resume formal work.

The intervention had three aims: restructuring personal debts, preventing the occurrence of new debt problems, and increasing the direct incentives to resume work.

The paper uses the Timing-of-Events method to identify the effects of debt programs on SA spells.

Our main finding is that the debt program substantially increased the exit out of the SA schemes, but this was mainly due to exits out of the labor force.

With a large share of assigned individuals who did not participate in the scheme, it appears that individuals perceived or experienced the program as unpleasant and opted to exit without work. Our results suggest the presence of threat effects, particularly for individuals who were assigned by their caseworkers but did not participate in the debt program.

JEL codes: C21, D14, H75, I38, J18, K35

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Evidence-based policy: What sort of evidence do governments need?

an article by Ann Nevile (Australian National University, Australia) published in The Economic and Labour Relations Review Volume 24 Number 2 (June 2013)

Abstract

Very few would dispute the proposition that evidence about the effects of different policy options should inform policy decisions.

However, there is less agreement on the nature of the evidence needed.

In addition, there may be problems in evaluating that evidence.

This is particularly the case when experts offer conflicting advice.

This article presents the position held by Professor Nevile that in giving policy advice to the government, it is almost always desirable to draw on a range of different policy instruments. While theoretical input is usually important, it is even more important that theory does not lose contact with the real world. Factual descriptions of the real world and the use of a theoretical toolkit containing more than one theory are essential in achieving this goal.

These principles are illustrated by a discussion of a particular category of policy advice – the evaluation of government programmes.

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