Evaluation of Public Works Program in the Czech Republic

This chapter evaluates Public Works implemented in the Czech Republic in 2019. Public Works are used for public sector employment of the most disadvantaged unemployed. The chapter is based on contra-factual impact estimation of PW effects using Coarsened exact matching and analysis of competing risks. The original contribution of the study lies in showing in detail how in the case of a concrete program the effects are constituted by specific (post)program features as well as by the program context. Evaluation results help to get an insight into the functioning of PW type of Public Works programme, and it can be inspiring for designing similar programs in the future. The authors found that while Public Works can work well as temporal placement of these people and may raise overall employment, they do not help integrate previous participants into the open labour market. Two factors are crucial for this result—a high share of returns to the PES register after the program and repeated participation in Public Works activities.