Using a random sample of U.S. unemployment insurance (UI) applicants from 2002-09, we find that unemployment duration (as measured by the time spent waiting to apply for benefits) has a negative and nonlinear effect on reservation wages, suggesting job search is a nonstationary process...

Over the past several decades, the rate at which regular unemployment insurance recipients run out of benefits before they have found jobs, even in a strong labor market, has been gradually rising. For example, in 1973, 27.4 percent of UI recipients exhausted their benefits; in 2007 (with a...

This paper presents a comparison of temporary layoff behavior caused by the two most common methods of experience rating in the U.S. Unemployment Insurance system, the reserve ratio and the benefit ratio methods. Differences in layoff paths arise from different adjustment processes. Under the...

In response to the 2007-09 "Great Recession," the maximum duration of U.S. unemployment benefits was increased from the normal level of 26 weeks to an unprecedented 99 weeks. I estimate the impact of these extensions on job search, comparing them with the more limited extensions associated with...

The systematic use of experience rating is an original feature of the U.S. unemployment benefit system. In most states, unemployment benefits are financed by taxing firms in proportion to their separations. Experience rating is a way to require employers to contribute to the payment of...

The proposed Back to Work Incentive Act of 2003 recommended personal reemployment accounts (PRAs) that would provide each eligible unemployment insurance (UI) claimant with a special account of up to $3,000 to finance reemployment activities. Account funds could be used to purchase intensive,...

During the 2007-2010 economic downturn, the US temporarily increased the duration of Unemployment Insurance (UI) by 73 weeks, higher than any prior extension, raising concerns about UI's disincentive effects on job search. This article examines the effect of temporary benefit extensions using a...

American employment policy for displaced workers started in the Great Depression with programs for the employment service, unemployment insurance, work experience, and direct job creation. Assistance for workers displaced by foreign competition emerged in the 1960s along with formalized programs...

This paper summarizes state unemployment insurance job search policies based on a recent survey of states by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. It then reviews research results on the effects of reemployment services on durations of insured unemployment. The paper documents...

The trend towards activation has been one of the major issues in recent welfare and labour market reforms in Europe and the US. Despite considerable initial variation across national models with respect to the scope and intensity of activation, redefining the link between social protection and...