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Bart Cockx

Ghent University, Belgium, and IZA, Germany

The World of Labor project is building up an extremely useful database for academics, policymakers, students, and teachers. Name any topic in labor and you will find an up-to-date survey of the academic literature, including policy recommendations. I am extremely delighted for getting the opportunity to contribute to this knowledge building. I hope that this will spur more rational decision making all over the world

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Professor at SHERPPA, Ghent University, Belgium

Research interest

Labor economics, youths in the labor market, the evaluation of labor market and social policies, micro-econometrics.

Website

https://sites.google.com/site/bartcockxsite/

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Coordinator of the Research Centre on Active Labour Market Policies funded by the Flemish Government (1/2012–12/2015)

Past positions

Professor in the Department of Economics of the Catholic University of Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve) (1993–2008)

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1992

Selected publications

  • "Is it socially efficient to impose job search requirements on unemployed benefit claimants with hyperbolic preferences?" Journal of Public Economics 113 (2014): 80–95 (with C. Ghirelli and B. Van der Linden).

  • "Scarring effects of remaining unemployed for long-term unemployed school-leavers.” The Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) 176:4 (2013): 951–980 (with M. Picchio).

  • "Duration dependence in the exit rate out of unemployment in Belgium. Is it true or spurious?" The Journal of Applied Econometrics 20 (2005): 1–23 (with M. Dejemeppe).

  • "Social employment of welfare recipients in Belgium: An evaluation." The Economic Journal 111:470 (2001): 322–352 (with G. Ridder).

  • "Analysis of transition data by the minimum chi-square method. An application to welfare spells in Belgium." The Review of Economics and Statistics 79:3 (1997): 392–405.

article(s)

  • Do youths graduating in a recession incur permanent losses?

    Penalties may last ten years or more, especially for high-educated youth and in rigid labor markets

    Bart Cockx, August 2016
    The Great Recession that began in 2008–2009 dramatically increased youth unemployment. But did it have long-lasting, adverse effects on the careers of youths? Are cohorts that graduate during a recession doomed to fall permanently behind those that graduate at other times? Are the impacts different for low- and high-educated individuals? If recessions impose penalties that persist over time, then more government outlays are justified to stabilize economic activity. Scientific evidence from a variety of countries shows that rigid labor markets can reinforce the persistence of these setbacks, which has important policy implications.
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