Part-Time Unemployment and Optimal Unemployment Insurance

Susanne Ek and Bertil Holmlund ()

No 2011:2, Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies from Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Abstract: A significant fraction of the labor force consists of employed workers who are part-time unemployed (underemployed) in the sense that they are unable to work as much as they prefer. This paper develops a search and matching model to study the design of optimal unemployment insurance in an economy with unemployment as well as part-time unemployment. Part-time unemployment provides income insurance and serves as a stepping stone to full-time jobs. Unemployment benefits for part-timers increase the outflow from unemployment to part-time work but reduce the outflow from part-time work to fulltime employment. We examine the optimal structure of benefits for unemployed and underemployed workers. The results indicate nonnegligible welfare gains associated with time limits for unemployment benefits as well as for part-time benefits. The welfare gains from optimal UI are larger when wages are fixed than when they are flexible.

Keywords: Job search; part-time unemployment; unemployment insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J64 J65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2011-02-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Part-time unemployment and optimal unemployment insurance (2015)
Working Paper: Part-Time Unemployment and Optimal Unemployment Insurance (2011)
Working Paper: Part-Time Unemployment and Optimal Unemployment Insurance (2011)
Working Paper: Part-Time Unemployment and Optimal Unemployment Insurance (2011)
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