We quantify labour market effects of changes in the potential benefit duration (PBD) in Poland. Individual workers' PBD depends on the county unemployment rate relative to the national average - 12 months of PBD above a cut-off of 125 per cent and 6 months below. This cut-off shifted from 125 to...

We quantify micro and macro effects of changes in the potential benefit duration (PBD) in unemployment insurance. In Poland, the PBD is 12 months for newly unemployed if the previous year's county unemployment rate is more than 150% of the national average, and 6 months otherwise. We exploit...

We design and field an innovative survey of unemployment insurance (UI) recipients that yields new insights about wage stickiness on the layoff margin. Most UI recipients express a willingness to accept wage cuts of 5-10 percent to save their jobs, and one-third would accept a 25 percent cut....

We use mean-field game theory to quantitatively compare two unemployment insurance (UI) extension policies commonly used during recessions: raising benefit levels versus extending the duration of benefits. Our heterogenous-agent model features costly job search and individual savings. Our...

The design of US unemployment insurance (UI) policy--which features benefits assigned as a percentage of past wages up to a cap--engenders tests for spillovers from policy variation to workers who are not directly treated. We test for and find a pattern of spillovers from state-level UI policy...

In countries with voluntary unemployment insurance, some workers are not insured against the risk of unemployment. This paper set-up a novel theoretical model in order to examine the impact on welfare and inequality when unemployment insurance is not obligatory but instead an individual...

As a primary pillar of Canada’s social safety net, Employment Insurance (EI) has proven itself to be slow to react to downturns, weakening its ability to automatically stabilize the economy. It has also gone off track from its original main goal: to provide insurance against unpredictable job...

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) system in the United States has played a decisive lifeline role in effectively mitigating the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which prompted the largest expansion of UI programs in history, one that is unprecedented in scope, scale and cost....