Edited by Jaap de Koning, Professor of Labour Market Policy, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Director, SEOR, The Netherlands

• Contents:Preface1. Introduction Jaap de KoningPART I: NEW MEASURES2. Is the Changing Pattern in the Use of Active Labour Market Policies Consistent with what Evaluations Tell Us About their Relative Performance?Jaap de Koning3. Labour Market Activation Policies: A Comparison of the Use of Tax Credits in Belgium, the UK and the USGerlinde Verbist, Lieve De Lathouwer and Annelies Roggeman4. Using the Unemployed as Employment Counsellors: Evaluation of an Initiative to Combat Long-term UnemploymentLennart Delander, Jonas Månsson and Erik Nyberg5. Recent Developments in Active Labour Market Policies in the UK: The Shifting Focus from Unemployment to InactivityNigel Meager6. Active Labour Market Policies and Social Inclusion: The Case of Flemish Social EnterprisesIdesbald NicaisePART II: PRIVATE–PUBLIC COOPERATION7. Contracting-out the Public Employment Service: A New Institutional Economics PerspectiveOliver Bruttel8. Between Efficiency and Equality: New Public–Private Arrangements in Employment Assistance for the UnemploymentLudo Struyven9. The Reform of the Dutch Public Employment ServiceJaap de Koning10. Private versus Public Provision of Placement Services for Hard-to-Place Unemployed: An Impact EvaluationLennart Delander, Jonas Månsson and Erik NybergPART III: BENCHMARKING11. Benchmarking Employment Services in GermanyHugh Mosley and Kai-Uwe Müller12. Mediation Services and the Outflow from Short-term Unemployment: Average and Relative Effectiveness of Public Employment OfficesLinda van Donk and Jaap de Koning13. Implementation of Performance Measurement in Public Employment Services in SwitzerlandChristoph Hilbert14. Does Quality Matter? Analysing the Effect of Omitted Variables on Optimal Scale: An Application to Swedish Employment OfficesJonas MånssonIndex