Switching from an inclining to a zero-level unemployment benefit profile: Good for work incentives?

Bart Cockx, Koen Declercq, Muriel Dejemeppe, Leda Inga and Bruno Van der Linden

Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium from Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Abstract: This paper evaluates the impact on the transition to work of a policy reform in Belgium that restricted the access to a specific unemployment insurance scheme for young labor market entrants. This scheme entitles youths with no or little labor market experience to unemployment benefits after a waiting period of one year. As of 2015, the Belgian government unexpectedly scrapped benefit eligibility for youths who start the waiting period at the age of 24 or older. The reform implied a change from an inclining to a flat rate (zero-level) benefit profile. We use a difference-in-differences approach to identify the causal impact of this reform on fresh university graduates. Our main finding is that this reform only increases the transition to very short-lived jobs.

Keywords: Youth unemployment; Unemployment insurance; Policy evaluation; Difference-indifferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J64 J65 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2020-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-ias
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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http://wps-feb.ugent.be/Papers/wp_20_991.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Switching from an inclining to a zero-level unemployment benefit profile: Good for work incentives? (2020)
Working Paper: Switching from an Inclining to a Zero-Level Unemployment Benefit Profile: Good for Work Incentives? (2020)
Working Paper: Switching From An Inclining To A Zero-Level Unemployment Benefit Profile: Good For Work Incentives? (2020)
Working Paper: Switching from an Inclining to a Zero-Level Unemployment Benefit Profile: Good for Work Incentives? (2020)
Working Paper: Switching from an inclining to a zero-level unemployment benefit profile: Good for work incentives? (2020)
Working Paper: Switching from an inclining to a zero-level unemployment benefit profile: Good for work incentives? (2020)
Working Paper: Switching from an inclining to a zero-level unemployment benefit profile: Good for work incentives? (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rug:rugwps:20/991

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