Recent Trends in Insured and Uninsured Unemployment: Is There an Explanation?

Rebecca M. Blank and David E. Card

No 2871, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper presents new evidence on the reasons for the recent decline in the fraction of unemployed workers who receive unemployment insurance benefits. Using samples of unemployed workers from the March Current Population Survey, we estimate the fraction of unemployed workers who are potentially eligible for benefits in each year and compare this to the fraction who actually receive unemployment compensation. Perhaps surprisingly, we find that the decline in the fraction of insured unemployment is due to a decline in the takeup rate for benefits . Our estimates indicate that takeup rates declined abruptly between 1980 and 1982, leading to a 6 percentage point decline in the fraction of the unemployed who receive benefits. We go on to analyze the determinants of the takeup rate for unemployment benefits, using both aggregated state-level data and micro-data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Changes in the regional distribution of unemployment account for roughly one-half of the decline in average takeup rates. The remainder of the change is largely unexplained.

Date: 1989-03
Note: LS
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w2871.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html.

Related works:
Working Paper: Recent Trends in Insured and Uninsured Unemployment: Is There an Explanation? (1988)
Journal Article: Recent Trends in Insured and Uninsured Unemployment: Is There an Explanation? (1991)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2871

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w2871
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc
Address: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by ().