Written by: Signe Hald Andersen

This paper presents a research overview of a number of studies in selected countries of the motivational effect of active labour market programmes. The amount of literature in the area is limited, but the results that are available consistently show the existence of a motivation effect. When unemployed individuals are faced with the imminent prospect of extra interviews or of participation in activation programmes or the like, they have a greater tendency than otherwise to exit from the benefit system and – in many cases – to find employment. The research overview includes studies from the Scandinavian countries, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, the USA and Australia. The studies relate to various periods between 1994 and 2011, and they focus on the motivation effect for all target groups – which means that they cover both people with unemployment insurance and people receiving social security benefits.