This report was prepared by Friedrich Poeschel, Jonathan Lain, and Theodora Xenogiani (project leader), economists in the OECD’s Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, as well as Irina Mozhaeva, researcher at the University of Latvia. Statistical assistance was provided by Dana Blumin and Sylvie Cimper and editorial assistance was provided by Lucy Hulett, Katerina Kodlova, and Monica Meza-Essid. Comments were provided by Andrew Green, Anne Lauringson, Mark Keese and Stefano Scarpetta. The report benefited greatly from the involvement and guidance of Christopher Prinz at the early stages of this work. The report would not have been possible without substantial input from policymakers in Latvia and the Social Inclusion Policy Committee. The support of Gundars Ignats, Ilze Zvidrina and Rita Strode from the Latvian Ministry of Welfare has been instrumental for this project. The report benefited enormously from the collection and sharing of administrative data by the State Employment Agency (notably Ilze Berzina), the State Social Insurance Agency, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, and the Social Assistance Administration Information System administered by the municipalities in Latvia. Experts from the State Employment Agency and the Ministry of Welfare also provided essential comments on earlier versions of this report. The information collected during the OECD missions to Latvia and the exchanges with all relevant stakeholders have been useful inputs to the report. The report also benefited from feedback from the participants in the “Evaluation of Labor Market Policies: New Data and New Approaches” workshop at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics in September 2018.
The report was funded by the Ministry of Welfare of the Republic of Latvia through the European Social Fund co-financed project "Studies and monitoring of an inclusive labour market and poverty risks", agreement LM 2017/24-1-1323/03.