Timed to say goodbye: Does unemployment benefit eligibility affect worker layoffs?

Andrea Albanese, Corinna Ghirelli and Matteo Picchio

No 436, Working Papers from Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali

Abstract: We study how unemployment benefit eligibility affects the layoff exit rate by exploiting quasiexperimental variation in eligibility rules in Italy. By using a difference-in-differences estimator, we find an instantaneous increase of about 12% in the layoff probability when unemployment benefit eligibility is attained, which persists for about 16 weeks. These findings are robust to different identifying assumptions and are mostly driven by jobs started after the onset of the Great Recession, in the South and for small firms. We argue that the moral hazard from the employer's side is the main force driving these layoffs.

Keywords: Unemployment insurance; layoffs; employer-employee moral hazard; difference-in-differences; heterogeneous effects. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 C41 J21 J63 J65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://docs.dises.univpm.it/web/quaderni/pdf/436.pdf First version, 2019 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Timed to Say Goodbye: Does Unemployment Benefit Eligibility Affect Worker Layoffs? (2020)
Working Paper: Timed to say goodbye: does unemployment benefit eligibility affect worker layoffs? (2019)
Working Paper: Timed to Say Goodbye: Does Unemployment Benefit Eligibility Affect Worker Layoffs? (2019)
Working Paper: Timed to Say Goodbye: Does Unemployment Benefit Eligibility Affect Worker Layoffs? (2019)
Working Paper: TIMED TO SAY GOODBYE: DOES UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT ELIGIBILITY AFFECT WORKER LAYOFFS? (2019)
Working Paper: Timed to Say Goodbye: Does Unemployment Benefit Eligibility Affect Worker Layoffs? (2019)
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