The underlying data from which the U.S. unemployment rate, labor-force participation rate, and duration of unemployment are calculated contain numerous internal contradictions. This paper catalogs these inconsistencies and proposes a unified reconciliation. We find that the usual statistics...

This paper uses the natural experiment provided by periodic increases in state benefit levels to estimate the effects of higher unemployment insurance benefits, individuals who filed just before and just after sixteen benefit increases are compared using data from five states during 1979-1984....

This paper tests the effects of the level and length of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits on unemployment durations. The paper particularly studies individual behavior during the weeks just prior to when benefits lapse. Higher UI benefits are found to have a strong negative effect on the...