"This groundbreaking book explores China's Minimum Livelihood Guarantee program, which was extended in the hopes of quieting the protests of millions of laid-off workers. Solinger replays the duet that unfolded between the state and the ranks of the proletariat and documents the progressively...

This paper derives optimal employment contracts when workers are risk averse and there are employment and unemployment risks. Without income insurance, consumption rises during employment and falls during unemployment. Optimal employment contracts offer severance compensation and sometimes give...

The standard motivation for unemployment compensation is consumption smoothing and most papers in the literature have analyzed trade-offs involving consumption smoothing and moral hazard. This paper shows how such policy can increase output by enhancing the assignment of workers to jobs in the...