Optimal Unemployment Insurance: How Important is the Demand Side?

I develop and simulate an equilibrium model of search with endogenous savings and search intensity. The wage offer distribution is endogenized by firms making vacancy and entry choices. This allows me to conduct a counterfactual analysis of the optimal unemployment insurance (UI) level. The provision of UI is motivated by the worker's inability to perfectly insure against income shocks, but at the same time UI introduces a distortion to the level of search intensity of the worker and vacancy intensity of firms. I find that equilibrium effects are important to take into account. Making policy from a partial model can introduce large welfare loses. It is also shown that different kinds of taxes have different implications on welfare.