Evidence suggests that unemployed individuals can sometimes affect their job prospects by undertaking a costly action like deciding to move or retrain. Realistically, such an opportunity only arises for some individuals and the identity of those may be unobservable ex-ante. The problem of...

This paper investigates how a mandatory activation program in Denmark affects the job finding rate of unemployed workers. The activation program was introduced in an experimental setting where about half of the workers who became unemployed in the period from November 2005 to March 2006 were...

This Paper investigates the effectiveness of benefit sanctions in reducing unemployment duration. Data from the Swiss labour market allow making a distinction between the effect of a warning that a person is not complying with eligibility requirements and the effect of the actual enforcement of...

Economic theory suggests that an extension of the maximum length of entitlement for unemployment benefits increases the duration of unemployment. Empirical results for the reform of the unemployment compensation system in Germany during the 1980s are less clear. The analysis in this paper is...

This article analyses the effectiveness of a system of job search monitoring system. Such a system leads the unemployed workers to reduce their wage requirements what results in a fall of the wages and in consequence of the unemployment rate. This article shows that a rise of the unemployment...

This paper provides new evidence on job search intensity of the unemployed in the U.S., modeling job search intensity as time allocated to job search activities. The main findings are: 1) the average unemployed worker in the U.S. devotes about 41 minutes to job search on weekdays, which is...

Dans cet article nous cherchons a quantifier les eventuels couts d'ajustement lies a la mise en place d'un systeme d'indemnisation du chomage a son niveau optimal de long terme lorsque sont explicitement pris en compte les comportements d'epargne des travailleurs. Le cadre theorique retenu est...

Nous etudions les consequences de l'indexation de l'assurance chomage sur le dernier salaire recu dans un modele de negociations salariales. Nous montrons que la hausse de l'allocation d'assurance chomage peut diminuer le taux de chomage si les travailleurs sont suffisammnet averses au risque....

The systematic use of experience rating is an original feature of the U.S. unemployment benefit system. At first glance, it is likely that experience rating is not desirable in many European labor markets characterized by high firing costs.

In this paper we examine the influence of unemployment on property crimes and on violent crimes in France for the period 1990 to 2000. This analysis is the first extensive study for this country. We construct a regional-level data set (for the 95 départements of metropolitan France) with...