Since the early years of activation and workfare in the 1990s, the use of welfare conditionality and benefit sanctions has been proposed among the necessary solutions to ensure the efficiency of welfare policy by reinforcing individual economic incentives. Using rich administrative registers from Norway, we produce micro-level quantitative evidence on compulsory activation for young recipients of social assistance. The empirical challenge is that activation through the threat of benefit sanctions is not a feature that unambiguously emerges from observational data, except for when sanctions indeed take place and benefits are reduced. To overcome this barrier, we introduce a novel methodology to identify individual-level effects of activation on young welfare recipients, exploiting municipal variation in the introduction of compulsory activation. More precisely, we study whether individuals who are residents in municipalities that have introduced compulsory activation display a stronger relationship between their labor market status (activation) and their benefit size (because sanctions being in place) compared to individuals residing in municipalities where activation has not been made compulsory. Our results show that there is no different relationship between social assistance benefits and passive labor market status for individuals living in municipalities that practice activation compared with individuals residing in municipalities in which activation is not yet mandatory. In other words, there is no visible effect of sanctions for passive recipients.

中文翻译：

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（内）看得见的制裁：对年轻福利接受者强制启动的微观证据

自20世纪90年代初期的激活和工作福利以来，福利条件和福利制裁的使用已被提出作为必要的解决方案之一，以通过加强个人经济激励来确保福利政策的效率。利用挪威丰富的行政登记册，我们为年轻的社会援助接受者提供了强制激活的微观定量证据。实证挑战是，通过利益制裁威胁来激活并不是观察数据中明确出现的特征，除非制裁确实发生并且利益减少。为了克服这一障碍，我们引入了一种新颖的方法来确定激活对年轻福利接受者的个人层面影响，利用强制激活引入中的城市差异。更准确地说，我们研究了与居住在未实施强制激活的城市中的个人相比，居住在已实施强制激活的城市中的个人是否在其劳动力市场地位（激活）与其福利规模（因为制裁到位）之间表现出更强的关系。被强制执行。我们的结果表明，与居住在尚未强制激活的城市的个人相比，居住在实行激活的城市的个人的社会援助福利和被动劳动力市场地位之间没有不同的关系。换句话说，制裁对于被动接受者并没有明显的影响。我们研究了与居住在未实行强制性激活的城市中的个人相比，居住在实行强制激活的城市中的个人是否在其劳动力市场地位（激活）与其福利规模（因为制裁到位）之间表现出更强的关系。我们的结果表明，与居住在尚未强制激活的城市的个人相比，居住在实行激活的城市的个人的社会援助福利和被动劳动力市场地位之间没有不同的关系。换句话说，制裁对于被动接受者并没有明显的影响。我们研究了与居住在未实行强制性激活的城市中的个人相比，居住在实行强制激活的城市中的个人是否在其劳动力市场地位（激活）与其福利规模（因为制裁到位）之间表现出更强的关系。我们的结果表明，与居住在尚未强制激活的城市的个人相比，居住在实行激活的城市的个人的社会援助福利和被动劳动力市场地位之间没有不同的关系。换句话说，制裁对于被动接受者并没有明显的影响。