Estimating the effects related to the timing of participation in employment assistance services using rich administrative data

This study assessed whether starting participation in Employment Assistance Services (EAS) earlier after initiating an Employment Insurance (EI) claim leads to better impacts for unemployed individuals than participating later during the EI benefit period. As in Sianesi (2004) and Hujer and Thomsen (2010), the analysis relied on a stratified propensity score matching approach conditional on the discretized duration of unemployment until the program starts. The results showed that individuals who participated in EAS within the first four weeks after initiating an EI claim had the best impacts on earnings and incidence of employment while also experiencing reduced use of EI starting the second year post-program.