This paper explores the effects of high and low skilled immigration to a hostcountry with unionized low skilled labor and an unemployment insurancescheme. It is shown that the consequences for the labor market and the welfareof natives depend crucially on the host country's production structure....

We study the transition dynamics and welfare effects of reducing unemployment benefits in a Mortensen-Pissarides matching model with precautionary savings. The dynamic analysis reveals significant transition costs that comparative statics would miss. The main reason is that initially individuals...

We examine the relationship between unemployment benefits and unemployment using Swedish regional data. To estimate the effect of an increase in unemployment insurance (UI) on unemployment we exploit the ceiling on UI benefits. The benefit ceiling, coupled with the fact that there are regional...

Flexicurity labour markets are characterised by flexible hiring/firing rules, generous socialsafety net, and active labour market policies. How can such labour markets cope with theconsequences of the Great Recession? Larger labour shedding is to be expected and thisstrains the social safety net...

A significant fraction of the labor force consists of employed workers who are part-timeunemployed (underemployed) in the sense that they are unable to work as much as theyprefer. This paper develops a search and matching model to study the design of optimalunemployment insurance in an economy...

This study examines the determinants of job-finding rates of unemployment benefit recipientsunder the Chilean program. This is a unique, innovative program that combines socialinsurance through a solidarity fund (SF) with self-insurance in the form of unemploymentinsurance savings accounts...

Firms select not only how many, but also which workers to hire. Yet, in standard searchmodels of the labor market, all workers have the same probability of being hired. We arguethat selective hiring crucially affects welfare analysis. Our model is isomorphic to a searchmodel under random hiring...

This paper studies optimal unemployment benefit levels and optimal proportional income taxrates over the business cycle. Previous research suggests that policy makers should makeunemployment insurance (UI) dependent on the business cycle because the UI system canbe used to smooth consumption...

By simulating the working of the unemployment insurance savings accounts (UISAs) in Slovenia using a methodology similar to Feldstein and Altman (1998), the paper examines two questions: how viable is this system as an alternative to traditional unemployment insurance (UI) system, and how the...