How Well Insured are Job Losers? Efficacy of the Public Safety Net

Chloe East and David Simon

No 28218, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: An extensive literature documents large and persistent declines in earnings following job loss. We study how the public safety net mitigates this using the 1996-2013 Survey of Income and Program Participation. Using an individual fixed effects model, we document which public programs provide the most insurance, and how this varies by pre-job loss characteristics. We find that Unemployment Insurance provides the largest buffer against lost income, but that the neediest are less well insured compared to middle- and higher- income job losers. This has important implications for the progressivity of the safety net, and how best to support displaced workers.

JEL-codes: H0 H31 J18 J65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias, nep-lab and nep-pbe
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