PhD defense: Katrine Holm Reiso

On Friday 12 December 2014 Katrine Holm Reiso will hold a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defend her thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.

28.11.2014 - Ed.

Young unemployed individuals and single mothers are natural target groups for labour market policy interventions. For example, if young workers are unemployed for short periods of time while searching for jobs, this may not be a major concern.

However, the consequences for both the individual and the society are much greater if an unemployment experience hinders the remainder of the individual's work-life. Similarly, welfare dependence among single mothers has been a concern of policy makers for decades. Reforms aimed at stimulating single mothers to work, and thereby reduce their dependence on welfare, have been implemented in several countries.

This thesis provides a detailed study of the life outcomes of young unemployed people and single mothers, as well as the children of single mothers. More specifically, it addresses three questions:

How does early-career unemployment affect an individual's future labour market opportunities? How do restrictive reforms to welfare programmes for single mothers affect the take-up of alternative benefits and overall welfare dependence of single mothers? How are children of single mothers affected by such reforms?

The results indicate that early-career unemployment is decisive for subsequent labour market success. This finding may be used as support for public expenditures targeted toward young workers. Furthermore, single mothers do not necessarily become self-sufficient, and many switch to alternative benefit programmes when reforms restrict access to the welfare programme targeted at them. This underscores the importance of taking into account the entire income security system when designing welfare reforms aimed at getting individuals off welfare and into work.

Finally, children of young single mothers that are exposed to reforms do worse in school than children of unexposed mothers. Encouraging single mothers to work may be a positive policy prescription. However, policy makers then need to ensure that there are good substitutes for maternal time at home.

Prescribed topic for the trial lecture:
«Reducing inequality in labour force participation»

Time of the trial lecture:
10:15 in Karl Boch, NHH

Title of the thesis:
«Young Unemployed, Single Mothers and Their Children»

Time and place for the defense:
12:15 in Karl Boch, NHH

Members of the evaluation committee:
Associate Professor Ragnhild Balsvik, NHH Norwegian School of Economics (leader)
Professor Regina T. Riphahn, Univ. Erlangen-Nuremberg
Professor Markus Bruno Jäntti, Stockholm University

Supervising committee:
Professor Øivind A. Nilsen, Department of Economics, NHH

The trial lecture and thesis defense will be open to the public. Copies of the thesis will be available from: bib@nhh.no