We explore the far-reaching implications of replacing current unemployment benefit (UB) systems by an unemployment accounts (UA) system. Under the UA system, employed people are required to make ongoing contributions to their UAs and the balances in these accounts are available to them during...

This paper presents a theory explaining the labor market matching process through microeconomic incentives. There are heterogeneous variations in the characteristics of workers and jobs, and firms face adjustment costs in responding to these variations. Matches and separations are described...

We present a proposal for reforming unemployment assistance in Germany through the introduction of unemployment accounts (UAs). Instead of paying taxes that finance the unemployment assistance, employed people make ongoing contributions to their UAs and can make withdrawals from these accounts...