Policy makers, researchers and professionals in the field of employment must weigh up a variety of issues when considering employment programs. These include the impact of different services on integration into the workforce and the best ways to evaluate the effectiveness of employment programs.
In July 2015, the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute had the privilege of hosting Prof. Burt Barnow, Professor of Public Service and Economics at George Washington University. Prof. Barnow spent two weeks at the Institute sharing his expertise and knowledge on labor economics and evaluation of employment programs. Another goal of his visit was to give an overview of US employment policy and research with both the historical experience and current trends.
The highlight of his visit were three seminars held at MJB, which attracted program developers, policy makers, and academics in the field of employment, as well as MJB researchers. The seminars combined lectures on US trends in employment programs with in-depth discussions about research on the programs’ effectiveness. As always, the seminars provided an opportunity for MJB staff and their Israeli professional partners to learn from a leading international expert and to share their work with other Israeli researchers in this field.
Prof. Barnow also spent time consulting with Institute researchers about their work. He shared the latest US research and suggested ways to address the issues that they are examining, such as developing adjusted performance measures, evaluating job advancement program and evaluating employment centers.
He met too with program developers and policy makers to explain research and practice in the United States on active labor market policies.
Prof. Barnow has over 30 years of experience as an economist and manager of research projects in the fields of workforce investment, program evaluation, performance analysis, labor economics, welfare and poverty. In addition to his experience in academia, Prof. Barnow has extensive experience in the government. He worked for 9 years at the United States Department of Labor, including 4 years as Director of the Office of Research and Evaluation in the Employment and Training Administration.
