Assistant Professor Xia Yiming from RIEM, in collaboration with Alex Armand (Professor at the University of New Lisbon), Pedro Carneiro (Professor at University College London), and Federico Tagliati (Researcher at the National Bank of Spain), presented a paper titled 'Can Subsidized Employment Tackle Long term Unemployment? Experimental Evidence from North Macedonia'? ——Experimental Evidence from North Macedonia "has been officially published in the top tier journal of development economics Journal of Development Economics（JDE）

This study experimentally assesses the effects of temporary wage subsidies on employment in North Macedonia. The target group consists of vulnerable unemployed individuals participating in an employment program that provides employers with a subsidy covering half of the wage payments during the first year of employment, as well as training expenses. Applicants are initially matched to job openings and then randomly selected for job interviews with employers, who decide whether to hire them under the program’s conditions. Using administrative records, we find that being selected for an interview results in a 14-percentage-point increase in the probability of being employed in the formal economy 3.5 years after the start of the program, and an 85% increase in employment duration.