Does Extending Unemployment Benefits Improve Job Quality?

Andrea Weber and Arash Nekoei

No 10568, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Contrary to standard search model predictions, prior studies failed to estimate a positive effect of unemployment insurance (UI) on reemployment wages. This paper estimates a positive UI wage effect exploiting an age-based regression discontinuity in Austrian administrative data. A search model incorporating duration dependence determines the UI wage effect as the balance between two offsetting forces: UI causes agents to seek higher-wage jobs, but also reduces wages by lengthening unemployment. This implies a negative relationship between the UI unemployment duration and wage effects, which holds empirically both in our sample and across studies, reconciling disparate wage-effect estimates. Empirically, UI raises wages by improving reemployment firms? quality and attenuating wage drops.

Keywords: Job search; Regression discontinuity design; Unemployment insurance; Wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H5 J3 J6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-ias and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Does Extending Unemployment Benefits Improve Job Quality? (2017)
Working Paper: Does Extending Unemployment Benefits Improve Job Quality? (2015)
Working Paper: Does Extending Unemployment Benefits Improve Job Quality? (2014)
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