Wage Insurance for Displaced Workers

PI姓：KovakTitle：失业工人的工资保险近几十年来，贸易和自动化导致了美国大量的失业。劳动力市场的快速变化凸显了考虑为失业工人提供经济保护的创新项目的重要性。工资保险是一种既能补偿失业又能激励人们重返工作岗位的方法。作为“再就业贸易调整援助”计划的一部分，失业工人在两年的时间里，最多可获得旧工作与新工作之间工资差额的一半。该项目考察了这一政策如何影响劳动力市场的结果。这项研究特别关注了人们失业的时间和重返工作岗位后的工资。因此，这项研究有助于探索工资保险作为标准失业保险制度的潜在替代方案。根据“再就业贸易调整援助”（RTAA）， 50岁以上因进口竞争而失业的工人可以获得失业前和失业后收入差额的一半（“工资保险”）。该研究采用基于资格年龄的回归-不连续（RD）设计来估计该计划对劳动力市场结果的因果影响。该项目将有关贸易失业工人的行政数据与具有全国代表性的雇主-雇员关联数据相结合，研究了工资保险在全国范围内对再就业工资、失业持续时间、工资增长和职业质量的长期影响。RD估计与充分统计框架一起使用，以评估福利影响。领取工资保险金的劳动者，在新行业或新职业积累人力资本的同时，可以使消费更加平稳。然而，该计划可能会产生道德风险，因为它鼓励工人从事低薪、低要求的工作，因为他们损失的工资有一部分是由保险支付的。该模型量化了这两种影响的程度。该项目促进了我们对工资保险作为失业保险的替代方案的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

PI Last Name: KovakTitle: Wage Insurance for Displaced WorkersProposal ID: 1851679Trade and automation have contributed to substantial job losses in the United States in recent decades. Such rapid changes to the labor market underscore the importance of considering innovative programs that provide financial protection to displaced workers. Wage insurance is one approach that provides both compensation for job loss and incentives to return to work. As part of the Re-Employment Trade Adjustment Assistance program, displaced workers receive up to half of the difference in wages between their old job and their new job for up to two years. The project examines how this policy influences labor market outcomes. The research specifically focuses on the amount of time people remain unemployed and their wages upon returning to work. The research, thus, is useful in exploring wage insurance as a potential alternative to standard unemployment insurance systems. Under Re-Employment Trade Adjustment Assistance (RTAA), workers over age 50 who lose their job to import competition can receive up to half of the difference in their pre-displacement and post-displacement earnings ("wage insurance"). The research uses a regression-discontinuity (RD) design based on eligibility age to estimate the causal effect of this program on labor market outcomes. Merging administrative data on trade-displaced workers with nationally representative employer-employee linked data, the project looks at the long-run effects of wage insurance on re-employment wages, unemployment durations, wage growth, and occupational quality over time at the national level. The RD estimates are used in connection with a sufficient-statistics framework to evaluate welfare effects. Workers receiving wage insurance payments may smooth consumption while accumulating human capital in a new industry or occupation. The program may, however, generate moral hazard by incentivizing workers to take lower-paying, less demanding jobs, because part of their lost wages are covered by insurance. The model quantifies the magnitude of these two effects. The project advances our understanding of wage insurance as an alternative to unemployment insurance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.