This paper provides a simple, yet general framework to analyze the optimal time profile of benefits during the unemployment spell. We derive simple sufficient-statistics formulae capturing the insurance value and incentive costs of unemployment benefits paid at different times during the...

This paper analyses job seekers' perceptions and their relationship to unemployment outcomes to study heterogeneity and duration dependence in both perceived and actual job finding. Using longitudinal data from two comprehensive surveys, we document that elicited beliefs are (1) strongly...

Individuals have differing beliefs about risks they face and their ability to mitigate these risks. Profit-maximizing firms exploit these differences, even if beliefs are unobservable. I show that firms screen identical agents with different beliefs by providing less insurance to optimists than...

This paper analyzes unemployment insurance contracts that combine monetary benefits and training. Unemployment insurance trades off the provision of search incentives and insurance against both the temporary loss of income and future losses in earnings due to the decrease in human capital. Human...