Many European countries entertain considerable active labour market policies (ALMP) to increase the reemployment chances of the unemployed. Since policies are very costly the pressure for scientific evaluations of the single programmes that are part of the ALMP increases. This paper surveys recent developments in the methodology of microeconometric evaluation that emphasises the issue of nonparametric identification of causal effects as a pre-requisite for reliable estimation and policy conclusions. The paper concludes with some brief remarks about recent empirical evaluations of the Swiss ALMP.