Moral hazard, optimal unemployment insurance, and aggregate dynamics

In this paper, I explore how optimal aggregate dynamics can be shaped by the presence of moral hazard in unemployment insurance. I also analyze the optimal provision of unemployment insurance and the implications for the amount of cross-sectional heterogeneity. The economy that I consider embeds the Hopenhayn-Nicolini unemployment insurance model into a real business cycle model with search frictions. In a calibrated version I find that the presence of private information has large effects on optimal aggregate steady-state dynamics but not on aggregate fluctuations. In addition, I find that optimal consumption replacement ratios are approximately independent of the business cycle.