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The rise of atypical forms of employment invites us to scrutinize unemployment benefit provision. Unlike the modern world of employment, based on “standard employment contract,” wage-earners in the performing arts advocate for the highly flexible regime of “intermittent” employment. Through the study of the effects of a deregulated market on careers, status and meaning of work, shared by atypical wage-earners, our aim is to understand the informal role of this compensation policy for their self-conception.

This article reviews practices in the United States (US) federal‐state unemployment insurance (UI) system regarding applicant eligibility, benefit generosity, benefit financing and emergency measures with the aim of revealing lessons for a possible European unemployment benefit system (EUBS) for European Union (EU) Member States. We overview the US system for UI and examine important areas of federal leadership. While the US system offers some good ideas for setting up an EUBS, there are also lessons in some shortcomings of the US experience. We overview existing national UI systems in the EU and review the debate on an EUBS in the EU. We identify areas of risk for individual and institutional moral hazard in a multi‐tiered UI system and give examples of monitoring methods and incentives to ameliorate such risks. We suggest approaches for gradual system development, encouraging lower‐tier behaviour, benefit financing, and responses to regional and system‐wide labour market crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of stricter job search-related conditions for Unemployment Insurance (UI) eligibility on the job search behaviour of claimants. Estimation makes use of exogenous variation introduced by the UK Jobseeker's Allowance. A significant share of claimants is found to leave the register increasing search intensity as well as request for job search assistance from Public Employment Centres. Exits with increased search are performed predominantly by liquidity constrained individuals. This evidence suggests that tighter search conditionality can lead committed jobseekers to un-subsidized search, reducing the capacity of UI to protect workers against the risk of unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial crisis in Portugal in the period 2010-2013 and the austerity policy imposed by the Troika led to structural reforms, rising unemployment and lower wages, with consequences in terms of increasing poverty through the destruction of some economic stabilizers. The objective of this study is to analyze whether austerity measures led to an increase in the number of beneficiaries of social benefits, namely: Family Allowance and Unemployment Benefits, in group D District Centres, as defined by the Institute of Social Security ISS, IP. It was found that the rules imposed by the Troika had an impact on benefits and the most affected was Family Allowance, coupled with the ageing population, low birth rate and the increase in emigration of young people. Unemployment, especially after the exit of the Troika, registered a significant reduction in the number of beneficiaries of this service in 2016, with the consequent reduction of the unemployment rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Despite an increasing emphasis on active labour market measures, unemployment benefits still remain a focal point of employment protection. This article takes the cases of four East Asian economies – China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China) –, which are often characterized as having welfare states with a strong developmental and productivist orientation, to investigate whether, as is sometimes argued, unemployment benefits are restrictive and exclusionary. In doing so, it examines the logic behind the design of unemployment benefits and argues that they are in fact progressive in design and fair when they pay out. Nonetheless, low effective coverage and low benefit rates weaken their redistribution and compensation objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]