Incomes after Job-loss in the United States: From Programme Rules to Panel Data.

Welfare state studies are usually motivated by one or both of two concerns: programme effects on the incidence of poverty, and the possibility of perverse incentive effects. Most research has been comparative, using cross-national indicators from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and other international organizations. That research often contrasts the generosity of programmes in a number of European countries and the lack of it in the USA. Focusing on income transfers after job-loss, in this article we critically examine the comparative evidence on US welfare state generosity and then use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to estimate what happens to job-losers' incomes. The comparative analysis suggests conclusions more nuanced than found in much of the literature. The PSID analysis shows how the income effects of job-loss vary across job-losers and suggests that the role of unemployment compensation programmes in supporting incomes may be overstated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]