Unemployment Compensation Benefits Research Articles

Unemployment persistence with an evolutionary perspective: job creation or destruction (or both)?

This study analyzes the linkage between dynamic persistence of unemployment and the demand side of the labor market—job creation and destruction with an evolutionary perspective. The Neo-Austrian model predicts that: (i) unemployment is not featured as stationary over the entire sample period. (ii) unemployment is in disequilibria if job creation or job destruction (or both) is in out-of-equilibrium adjustment; (iii) regions with more unemployment compensation benefits or co-ordination problem are featured by higher unemployment persistence compared with low unemployment insurance benefits. The empirical analysis using aggregate-level and state-level data provides empirical support to these predictions. Using a unique dataset, this study finds that the persistence in the unemployment rate is a job destruction phenomenon.

Disentangling Income Inequality and the Redistributive Effect of Social Transfers and Taxes in 36 LIS Countries

The aim of this paper is to offer detailed information of fiscal redistribution in 36 countries, employing data that have been computed from the Luxembourg Income Study’s micro-level database. LIS data are detailed enough to allow us to measure both overall redistribution, and the partial effects of redistribution by several taxes or transfers. We elaborate on the work of Jesuit and Mahler (2004) and Mahler and Jesuit (2006), and we refine, update and extent their Fiscal Redistribution approach. LIS data allow us to decompose the trajectory of the Gini coefficient from primary to disposable income inequality in several parts: we will distinguish 11 different benefits and several income taxes and social contributions in our empirical investigation across countries. First, we use LIS data to analyze income inequality and the redistributive effect of social transfers across countries in a descriptive way. Then we proceed with a simulation approach for 36 countries for which we decompose income inequality through several taxes and transfers. We analyze the redistributive effect of several social programs, like unemployment benefits or pensions and income taxes. We develop a budget incidence simulation model to investigate to what extent several social transfers contribute to the overall redistribution in modern welfare states under a strong assumption that the absence of social transfers and taxes would not change individual behavior and labor supply. Among all countries listed in this paper, Denmark and Sweden have the smallest income disparity, while Peru and Colombia have the largest. Nordic countries show the most equally distributed disposable incomes and primary incomes, comparing to the countries in other types of welfare states. On average, large primary income disparity exists in Anglo-Saxon countries. Generally speaking, European countries achieve lower levels of income inequality than other countries. With respect to the redistributive effect, our budget incidence analysis indicates that the pattern is diverse across countries. The largest redistribution is found for Belgium, while Colombia and Peru show rather limited overall redistributive effects. On average, transfers reduce income inequality by over 85 percent, while taxes account for only 15 percent of total redistribution. Among all welfare states, Continental European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg) achieve the highest level of the reduction of initial income inequality. As far as social programs is concerned, in most countries two dominant income components account for above 50 percent of total reduction in income inequality: the public old age pensions and the survivors scheme, and the income taxes. For example, in Southern European Countries the public old age benefits account for over 80 percent of total redistribution, while these figures are much lower for Anglo-Saxon Countries (2'234%), for Nordic Countries (31-48%), for Continental European Countries (47-57%), and for Central Eastern European Countries (54-70%). In Anglo-Saxon Countries income taxes play a major role (above 30%) compare to other countries (with the exception the United kingdom). Also the redistributive effect of social assistance and child and family benefits in the Anglo-Saxon Countries are relatively high in a comparative setting (9-28%). In Nordic Countries also a variety of other social programs contribute to the reduction of inequality, especially the disability scheme (9-15%). Remarkably, across countries all other social benefit programs seem to have rather limited redistributive effects, although the unemployment compensation benefits do have some effect too.

Unemployment benefits and parental resources: what helps the young unemployed with labour market integration?

This article deals with the question of how different resources affect the labour market integration of the young unemployed. Previous research has often focused on the effects of unemployment compensation benefits on labour market outcomes. However, for young unemployed people additional parental resources may be even more important. The article examines the effects both of unemployment benefits and family-related resources. The main hypothesis it advances is that individuals who have access to different resources will enter more stable jobs after unemployment than those lacking such different kinds of support. Using data from a longitudinal study on youth unemployment in Germany, I find that subsequent job duration increases with the receipt of unemployment benefits but decreases with parental support. Accordingly, benefits actually improve post-unemployment job tenure, whereas parental support functions rather as a ‘safety net’ enabling young people to quit a job.

The Employment, Unemployment and Unemployment Compensation Benefits of Immigrants

This report analyzes the employment and unemployment experiences of adult foreign-born men, both among themselves and in comparison with the native born. The empirical analysis uses microdata from the 1990 Census of Population. Three dependent variables are analyzed, weeks worked (employment) in 1989, unemployment status in the reference week in 1990, and a proxy measure of unemployment compensation benefits received in 1989. The theoretical model focuses on the job search behavior of the foreign born within the context of an immigrant adjustment model based on the imperfect transferability of skills and labor market information acquired prior to immigration. In particular, the model focuses on the effects on employment and unemployment of schooling, labor market experience, marital status and the agricultural sector, in addition to English language fluency and country of origin. The hypotheses developed from the model are found to be consistent with the data. Employment is significantly lower, and unemployment is significantly higher, among the foreign born in the U.S. for three or fewer years, but then reaches a level after which there is little variation by duration of residence. Unemployment problems associated with immigrants appear to be short-term transitional adjustments.

Family Poverty and Public Dependency

The author used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, survey year 1993, to identify determinants of public benefits among families above and below the official poverty line in 1992. The relative effects of sociodemographic and attitudinal/cultural characteristics were assessed to determine the likelihood of male and female respondents receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children, food stamps, and/or unemployment-compensation benefits. Results indicated that many sociodemographic characteristics exerted similar influence on men and women regarding the likelihood of using public assistance regardless of poverty status. Marital status and education were notable exceptions. Findings suggested that men and women used public assistance as a buffer against economic vulnerability and that increased education might be a less effective means to self-sufficiency than commonly thought. Antipoverty policy implications are discussed.

Religious Freedom and Unemployment Compensation Benefits

One key issue which has surrounded the payment of unemployment compensation benefits has been whether states could deny payment of such benefits to individuals who were out of Work for religious reasons. This presented a classic clash between state denial and First Amendment religious protections. In all such confrontations from 1963 until 1990 the Supreme Court sided with the claimant, but reversed itself in that year in Oregon v. Smith. This reversal triggered off the introduction of two House Bills calling for concepts to be enacted into general law which would be congruent with the earlier Supreme Court compensation decisions.

The impact of unemployment insurance benefits on the probability of migration of the unemployed.

"By ignoring individual unemployment compensation benefits and conditions of job termination, past migration research has concluded that personal unemployment doubles the likelihood of interstate labor-force migration. Findings from the present study indicate that aggregating the unemployed, without adjusting for these two factors, overstates the probability of migration for the involuntarily unemployed benefit recipient and understates the likelihood of migration for the voluntarily unemployed benefit recipient. The results suggest that federal discretionary unemployment-compensation programs, which are implemented during recessionary periods, likely serve to retard out-migration of those who are involuntarily unemployed." Data are from a 1982 sample of unemployed U.S. workers.

Why is Insured Unemployment so Low?

THE NATION'S unemployment rate has risen to new post-Depression highs since 1980. But at the same time the number of persons receiving unemployment compensation benefits has been unusually low relative to the total number of unemployed. Two types of state and federal programs are involved in this development: regular unemployment benefits and extended and supplemental benefit programs. The regular unemployment compensation program provides benefits for a duration of about six months (twenty-six weeks) to workers on temporary or permanent layoff and to certain unemployed workers who quit theirjobs forjust cause. Extended and supplemental unemployment compensation programs provide benefits lasting three or more additional months to workers who exhaust their regular benefits. During the recent recession the number of recipients of regularjobless benefits was low in comparison to the number of workers who lost their jobs. This development affected the insured unemployment rate (IUR), which is one of the nation's two most important measures of slack in the labor market. The IUR is essentially the number of recipients of regular benefits divided by the total number of jobs covered by the unemployment insurance system.' Since the numerator of this ratio is available

Extended Unemployment Compensation Benefits

Extended Unemployment Compensation Benefits

Withdrawal of Unemployment Compensation Benefits for Refusal to Accept Work in Violation of Union Rules

Withdrawal of Unemployment Compensation Benefits for Refusal to Accept Work in Violation of Union Rules

1944-1945 Programs for Postwar Social Security and Medical Care

S OCIAL SECURITY and employment' are looked upon, in all Allied Nations and also in most neutral countries, as the keys to economic well-being in the postwar era. Improved labor standards, economic advancement and social are the economic objectives of the Atlantic Charter. All these terms are somewhat vague in meaning, but they express the hopes of hundreds of millions of people and are central in all postwar planning. Even while the war was in progress, considerable improvement was made in the social security legislation of many countries.2 This is not true of the United States, in which there was no social security legislation whatsoever on the national level during the five years between the enactment of the Social Security Act Amendments of I939 and the passage of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act (the G. I. Bill of Rights) in I944, except for the adoption of annual riders to appropriations acts which provided for freezing of the old-age insurance tax rates. Some advances were made in the states, particularly in the liberalization of unemployment compensation benefits. But the only law in this country which broke new ground was the Rhode Island Act of 194I for cash disabilitv benefits. In many other countries, in contrast, the war period brought forth much new social security legislation. The advances in this respect have been greatest in the Latin American countries. Very significant new social-security legislation also has been enacted in England, Canada, and Australia, while in New Zealand the comprehensive national health insurance and medical-care program adopted shortly before the outbreak of hostilities has been put into full operation. More important even than the new legislation are the comprehensive programs for social security which were developed during the war. Prior to I 944, such postwar programs were formulated and publicized in England, the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa all of them under governmental auspices.3 The most famous of these was the Beveridge Plan in England, which made its appearance late in I942.4 Beyond question, this has been the most widely-discussed social security program ever advanced anywhere in the world. In this country it has brought forth far more articles than were written about the Social Security Act during the entire year that this major American social security measure was in preparation and under consideration in Congress. Almost immediately after its publication, the

Social Insurance: Its Nature and Characteristics as Exemplified by the Old Age and Survivors Insurance System

IN THE face of the readjustments and upheavals resulting from the'war, the social services cannot stand still. They must be extended and improved to meet changing conditions. And, if war and post-war challenges are to be met effectively, we must pose again that old question: What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of alternative methods for making income available to dependent or potentially dependent men and women? But, before we attempt to answer this question, let us consider the methods that have been used so far to meet the specific dependency problems indigenous to the war. The first of such problems arises from the displacement of workers in plants converted to war production. State unemployment insurance systems throughout the country have made possible the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to many of these workers and have helped to tide them over until plants were converted to war production. The amount and duration of benefits for which these and other jobless workers qualify vary widely from state to state as well as in individual cases. Workers with essentially similar records of past employment and earnings may have, under the state laws, highly differing degrees of protection, though the common cause of their displacement is the situation confronting the entire nation. Other workers, particularly those employed by small businesses which had been forced to shut down because of lack of

DISABILITY INSURANCE AND HOSPITALIZATION PAYMENTS

In his budget message to the second session of the Seventy-Seventh Congress, January 7, President Roosevelt recommended "an increase in the coverage of old age and survivors' insurance, addition of permanent and temporary disability payments and hospitalization payments beyond the present benefit programs, and liberalization and expansion of unemployment compensation in a uniform national system." On Jan. 20, 1942 a communication from the President was sent to the House of Representatives requesting $300,000,000 for "extended unemployment compensation benefits." This recommendation apparently is not related to the proposed disability and hospitalization payments but refers only to problems of unemployment occasioned by the changing of industrial plants from the production of peace time goods to the production of war materials. Officially, this is the status of a recommendation thrown by the President recently into the whirlpool of public opinion. The discussion of the problem is agitating leaders in the fields of prepayment

The Seasonal Worker and Unemployment Compensation Benefits

The Seasonal Worker and Unemployment Compensation Benefits

The Administration of Unemployment Compensation Benefits in Wisconsin, July 1, 1936, to June 30, 1937. By Walter Matscheck and R. C. Atkinson. Chicago, Public Administration Service Publication No. 581, 1937. 98 pp. $1.00

National Municipal ReviewVolume 27, Issue 5 p. 286-287 Recent Books Reviewed The Administration of Unemployment Compensation Benefits in Wisconsin, July 1, 1936, to June 30, 1937. By Walter Matscheck and R. C. Atkinson. Chicago, Public Administration Service Publication No. 581, 1937. 98 pp. $1.00 First published: May 1938 https://doi.org/10.1002/ncr.4110270518AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume27, Issue5May 1938Pages 286-287 RelatedInformation

Next Steps in Social-Security Legislation

WHEN President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in August, 1935, he described it as the cornerstone in a structure which is being built, but is by no means complete. In January, 1938, less than two years after federal funds to implement the Act became available, the President transmitted to Congress recommendations for amending it, which represent another step in this long-term business of building a nation-wide socialsecurity program. These proposed amendments would extend the coverage of the old age insurance system; speed up, in many states, the payment of unemployment compensation benefits; and simplify the administration of both programs. Aside from their intrinsic importance, they are significant as indications of basic policy with regard to the development of the Act. That policy, accepted alike by the President, the Congress, and federal administrative agencies, is one of learning by experience. The Act laid down the framework for a more comprehensive program of social legislation than any other nation has ever undertaken at one time. Those responsible for its further development have taken the position that administering the present law is the best, if not the only, way of determining what — and when — legislative changes can be wisely undertaken. All the proposals presented by the President are based on the Social Security Board's experience in administering the law as it now stands.

The Role of the Public Employment Service in the Unemployment Compensation Program

It would appear inevitable to any student of the problem of administration of unemployment compensation that the public employment service must be closely coirdinated with the administrative machinery provided to carry out such an enterprise. The entire history of European experience with various forms of unemployment insurance indicates the essential nature of this relationship, and it was recognized by Congress in passing the Social Security Act through the inclusion of a provision that the payment of unemployment compensation benefits should be through public employment offices or other agencies approved by the Social Security Board.1 In the preliminary development of plans for administration of unemployment compensation, the Social Security Board seems to be contemplating the exclusive use of the Employment Service for these purposes. It therefore is pertinent to inquire with respect to the possible nature of such relationships and the part which the Employment Service should play in this program.