This paper analyses a model of private unemployment insurance under limited commitment and a model of public unemployment insurance subject to moral hazard in an economy with a continuum of agents and an infinite time horizon. The dynamic and steady-state properties of the private unemployment...

This paper analyses the factors determining reservation wages in Estonia, and estimates the influence of the reservation wage on unemployment duration. According to estimations there is no statistically significant effect of unemployment benefit and social assistance on the reservation wage in...

I study the consequences of heterogeneity of skills for the design of an optimal unemployment insurance, using a principal-agent set-up with a risk neutral insurer and infinitely lived risk averse agents. Agents, who are characterised by different productivities or skills, are employed by firms...

This paper presents results of an on-going joint European Commission / OECD project, aimed at monitoring the direct influence of tax and benefit instruments on household incomes. Indicators of financial work incentives are needed for identifying any undesired influences of taxes and social...

The framework of a general equilibrium heterogeneous agent model is used to study the optimal design of an unemployment insurance (UI) scheme and the voting behaviour on unemployment policy reforms. In a first step, the optimal defined benefit and defined replacement ratio UI systems are...

Extended unemployment benefits programs in the US are triggered by the state insured unemployment rate while intrastate demand conditions often vary dramatically. Some tight local labor markets may therefore exhibit a large adverse effect of extended unemployment benefits. Using a competing risk...

The system of Unemployment Insurance (UI) financing in the US draws its funds from a payroll tax on employers and varies the tax rate according to the individual employer's layoff history. There exists extensive evidence on the effect of this so-called experience rated tax on layoff decisions....

This paper investigates the dynamic consequences of demographic change and various pension reform scenarios for Austria. The analysis is based on a computable overlapping generations model with life-cycle labor supply, savings, and search unemployment. The public sector is decomposed into...

In this paper, the effects of alternatives to finance unemployment benefits on employment and wages are examined in a model with search generated equilibrium unemployment. It is demonstrated that employment improves if a value--added tax is levied, as opposed to a social system contribution,...

This paper uses U.S. micro level data on employment durations to quantify the effect of potential Unemployment Insurance (UI) entitlement on job separations. Economic theory motivates estimation of a competing risk hazard model for quits and layoffs. The estimation procedure simultaneously...