Navigating Unemployment without Unemployment Insurance: Evidence from Singapore
Seonghoon Kim () and
Lanjie Wang ()
Additional contact information
Seonghoon Kim: Singapore Management University
Lanjie Wang: Singapore Management University
No 17299, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
Abstract:
This study investigates the short-term impacts of unemployment in Singapore, a setting without public unemployment insurance. Using monthly panel data from the Singapore Life Panel, we analyze dynamic effects on major life outcomes such as income, spending, health, and subjective well-being over two years post-unemployment. Our findings reveal substantial initial earnings losses with incomplete recovery, as income remains 50.6% below pre-unemployment levels after 24 months. Despite this persistent income gap, consumption responses are modest, with total household expenditure decreasing by 13–17% over two years. The two-year marginal propensity to consume is about 0.2 which is smaller than estimates in countries with more extensive social insurance, suggesting robust self-insurance mechanisms. We observe increased retirement and self-employment but no significant spousal earnings response. While health status remains largely unchanged, we find substantial declines in life satisfaction. Our study provides insights into unemployment dynamics in a UI-free environment, suggesting modest welfare gains from introducing unemployment benefits in Singapore.
Keywords: unemployment shock; consumption spending; event study design; monthly panel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 E24 J14 J60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2024-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ipr, nep-lab and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp17299.pdf (application/pdf)
Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17299
Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().