1. Unemployment Benefits, Unemployment Duration, and Post-Unemployment Jobs: A Regression Discontinuity Approach.
- Author
-
Lalive, Rafael
- Subjects
EMPLOYMENT ,EMPLOYMENT of older people ,STRUCTURAL unemployment ,UNEMPLOYMENT insurance claimants ,SOCIAL services ,AUSTRIAN economy, 1945- ,AUSTRIAN economic policy, 1945- ,ECONOMICS - Abstract
The article tests the theory that extended unemployment benefits contribute to a higher structural rate of unemployment by examining the effects of changes in the Austrian system of unemployment compensation. In Austria, job seekers who become unemployed at age 50 or older are eligible for 52 rather than 39 weeks of benefits. Due to restructuring of the state-owned steel industry, job seekers over 50 from certain regions of the country are eligible for 209 weeks of benefits. The data presented leads to the conclusion that the dramatically extended benefits led to a longer duration of unemployment and reduced the transitions to new jobs, but did not affect the quality of jobs found by the unemployed. The shorter extended benefits had negligible impact on unemployment rates and those ancillary economic effects.
- Published
- 2007
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