We exploit a policy discontinuity at U.S. state borders to identify the effects of unemployment insurance policies on … unemployment. Our estimates imply that most of the persistent increase in unemployment during the Great Recession can be accounted … for by the unprecedented extensions of unemployment benefit eligibility. In contrast to the existing recent literature …

"This paper examines the causes of the observed increase in the average duration of unemployment over the past thirty … in the generosity and coverage of unemployment insurance. We find that changes in the composition of the labor force and … institutional changes can only partially account for the longer duration of unemployment. We construct a job search model and …