ABSTRACT
Vocational rehabilitation (VR) has been used extensively in many countries as a policy instrument to improve labor market opportunities for individuals with different kinds of disabilities. There are quite a number of international empirical analyses of the economic efficacy of vocational rehabilitation that supports the view that this is a socially profitable activity. In particular the US VR program has been subject to many favorable analyses over the years. Comprehensive surveys of the empirical results and methodological problems of analyses seeking to evaluate the economic effects of different VR programs are found in R. Haveman et al. and E. D. Berkowitz. The early economic evaluations of VR programs in the sixties and seventies all produced very optimistic estimates of the social benefits of VR programs as compared to the costs. Even strong proponents for comparison group studies of VR programs like Robert C. Dolan and David H. Dean hold the view that a purely experimental design would be preferable, given that it was feasible.
