Social Insurance, Economic Policy and the Labor Market

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Hugo A. Hopenhayn University of Rochester SBR-9514717 This research will examine several aspects of unemployment insurance that have implications for the design of social insurance in many other countries. The P.I. will undertake joint research with Dr. Antonio Cabrales of Spain and Dr. Juan Pablo Nicolini of Argentina to understand the international dimension of his research project. The first aspect investigated will be the adverse impact of unemployment insurance on the reemployment of workers. Unemployment insurance can induce workers to reduce their search intensity or to decline some job offers. The research will attempt to determine the optimal design of unemployment insurance to provide insurance yet still provide suitable incentives for reemployment. The second aspect will be the ability to learn about different workers abilities over their work history. Unemployment insurance will transfer income from high to low ability workers over time. This will have an impact on the optimal design of unemployment insurance. The final aspect of the research will look at the job creation and job destruction process to learn if this too should affect the optimal design of unemployment insurance, and if so, in what way.