Benefit Entitlement and Unemployment Duration: The Role of Policy Endogeneity

Rafael Lalive and Josef Zweimüller ()

No 492, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The potential duration of benefits is generally viewed as an important determinant of unemployment duration. This paper evaluates a unique policy change that prolonged entitlement to regular unemployment benefits from 30 weeks to a maximum of 209 weeks for elderly individuals in certain regions of Austria. In the evaluation, we explicitly account for the fact that the program was an endogenous policy response to a crisis affecting individuals with severe labor market problems. The main results are: (i) REBP reduced the transition rate to jobs by 17 %; (ii) accounting for endogenous policy adoption is important and quantitatively significant.

Keywords: maximum benefit duration; quasi-experiments; unemployment duration; unemployment insurance; benefit entitlement; policy endogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C41 J64 J65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2002-05
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Published - published in: Journal of Public Economics, 2004, 88 (12), 2587-2616

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Related works:
Journal Article: Benefit entitlement and unemployment duration: The role of policy endogeneity (2004)
Working Paper: Benefit Entitlement and Unemployment Duration: The Role of Policy Endogeneity (2002)
Working Paper: Benefit Entitlement and Unemployment Duration - The Role of Policy Endogeneity
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