This paper examines whether the chances of job placements improve if unemployed persons are counselled by caseworkers who belong to the same social group, defined by gender, age, education, and nationality. Based on an unusually informative dataset, which links Swiss unemployed to their caseworkers, we find positive employment effects of about 4 percentage points if caseworker and unemployed belong to the same social group. Coincidence in a single characteristic, e.g. same gender of caseworker and unemployed, does not lead to detectable effects on employment. These results, obtained by statistical matching methods, are confirmed by several robustness checks.
The debate on volunteering has paid insufficient attention to the relationship between public spending and volunteering. The importance of this relationship is highlighted by the British government's “Big Society” plan, which asserts that an increase in volunteering will compensate for the withdrawal of public agencies and spending. This idea is based on the widely held belief that a high degree of government intervention decreases voluntary activities. This article uses a multidisciplinary approach to improve understanding of how public spending affects the decision to volunteer. A theoretical model conceptualizes this relationship in terms of time donation by employed individuals. The model is tested empirically through an econometric analysis of two survey data sets and interpretative analysis of narratives of local volunteers and public professionals. The results suggest that volunteering is likely to decline when government intervention decreases and that a collaborative approach to sustaining volunteering is needed.
Economist Emil Lederer was exposed to diverse influences. In Vienna, Austria, he was a student of Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk and Friedrich Von Wieser. His supervisor in Munich, Germany, where he received a second doctoral degree, was Lujo Brentano. Emil Lederer's work in economics reflects this rich background. On the one hand, there are roots in the German historical school with its holistic approach to economic and social phenomena, but also its meticulous empirical investigations, detailed collection, and examination of facts. On the other hand Lederer's roots are in the Austrian school, stressing theoretical analysis and deductive reasoning. Lederer's sense of the overall importance of the issues raised by technical change is highlighted in his discussion of the links between the changes in production technology, social organization, and politics as exemplified in his 1934 article, where the emergence of fascist governments is discussed.
