Publications

April 2002
Article

The Determination of Unemployment Benefits

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert J. MacCulloch

While much empirical research exists on labor market consequences of unemployment benefits, there is remarkably little evidence on the forces determining benefits. We present a simple model where workers desire insurance against unemployment risk and benefits increase... View Details

Keywords: Unemployment; Compensation and Benefits

February 2016
Article

Labor Unemployment Insurance and Earnings Management

By: Yiwei Dou, Mozaffar N. Khan and Youli Zou

There is relatively little prior evidence on the potential impact of rank and file employees on financial reporting choices outside union negotiations. We contribute to the literature by providing new evidence that firms appear to manage long-run earnings upward in... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Employment; Insurance; Financial Reporting

SSRN

Article

Early Withdrawal of Pandemic Unemployment Insurance: Effects on Earnings, Employment and Consumption

By: Kyle Coombs, Arindrajit Dube, Calvin Jahnke, Raymond Kluender, Suresh Naidu and Michael Stepner

In June 2021, 22 states ended all supplemental pandemic unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, eliminating benefits entirely for over 2 million workers and reducing benefits by $300 per week for over 1 million workers. Using anonymous bank transaction data and a... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Unemployment Insurance; Health Pandemics; Insurance; Employment; Financial Condition; Spending; Government Administration

November 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

MiDAS: Automating Unemployment Benefits

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In 2015, the state of Michigan considered whether to nominate its Michigan Integrated Data Automated System (MiDAS) for a prestigious state technology award. Launched in 2013 amid severe budget pressures, the $47 million automated fraud detection system was designed to... View Details

Educators

April–May 2021
Article

The Effect of Retaliation Costs on Employee Whistleblowing

By: Jonas Heese and Gerardo Pérez Cavazos

We use large increases in unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to study the effects of expected retaliation costs on employee whistleblowing. Increases in UI benefits reduce the costs that arise from a job loss, one of the costliest forms of retaliation. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Employee Whistleblowing; Retaliation Costs; Labor Unemployment Insurance; Workplace Safety Inspections

SSRN

Article

Informal Family Insurance and the Design of the Welfare State

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch

We study unemployment benefit provision when the family also provides social insurance. In the benchmark case, more generous State transfers crowd out family risk-sharing one-for-one. An extension gives the State an advantage in enforcing transfers through taxes... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Design; Welfare

December 2006
Article

Europe vs America: Institutional Hysteresis in a Simple Normative Model

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch

We show how the differences in US and European institutions can arise in a normative model. The paper focuses on the labor market and the government's decision to set unemployment benefits in response to an unemployment shock. The government balances insurance... View Details

Keywords: Optimal Unemployment Benefits; Labor Market Institutions; Hysteresis; Europe; United States

17 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

Many Small-Business Employees May Be Close to Losing Health Insurance

A health insurance crisis may be looming for employees of small businesses, with many firms struggling to cover their share of these costs, new research from Harvard Business School finds. Nearly one-third of employers surveyed weren’t... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

24 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Cutting Jobless Aid Isn't the Answer to Worker Shortages

materialized a month or two later if those governors had opted to keep distributing the federal benefits, Kluender says. Unemployment insurance flowing into accounts dropped by $281.50 per week by early... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Winter 2014
Article

Labor Regulations and European Venture Capital

By: Ant Bozkaya and William R. Kerr

European nations substitute between employment protection regulations and labor market expenditures (e.g., unemployment insurance benefits) for providing worker insurance. Employment regulations more directly tax firms making frequent labor adjustments than other labor... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Labor; Europe

2009
Working Paper

Labor Regulations and European Private Equity

By: Ant Bozkaya and William R. Kerr

European nations substitute between employment protection regulations and labor market expenditures (e.g., unemployment insurance benefits) for providing worker insurance. Employment regulations more directly tax firms making frequent labor adjustments than other labor... View Details

Keywords: Employment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Taxation; Insurance; Investment; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Europe

2009
Working Paper

Labor Regulations and European Private Equity

By: Ant Bozkaya and William R. Kerr

European nations substitute between employment protection regulations and labor market expenditures (e.g., unemployment insurance benefits) for providing worker insurance. Employment regulations more directly tax firms making frequent labor adjustments than other labor... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Private Equity; Insurance; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Taxation; Employment; Europe

22 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Companies Can Expand Their Talent Pool by Giving Ex-Convicts a Second Chance

Employers looking to fill critical job vacancies may want to turn to a largely untapped pool of willing workers: people with criminal records. Employers are often wary of hiring workers with past convictions, leading to double-digit View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

27 Jan 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Labor Regulations and European Private Equity

Keywords: by Ant Bozkaya & William R. Kerr

23 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID Was Supposed to Increase Bankruptcies. Instead, They've Gone Down.

Consumer bankruptcies usually climb alongside unemployment rates as filers seek to discharge debt and get a fresh start, write the authors of the new working paper Bankruptcy and the COVID-19 Crisis. “Historically, the number one cause of... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

2010
Chapter

The Peculiar Politics of American Disaster Policy: How Television Has Changed Federal Relief

By: David Moss

Particularly since the 1960s, the federal government has played a significant role in financing disaster losses in the United States. The federal government may thus be thought of as providing an implicit form of public disaster insurance. However, unlike many... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Policy; Government and Politics; Media; Natural Disasters; United States

September 2020
Article

Relaxing Household Liquidity Constraints Through Social Security

By: Sylvain Catherine, Max Miller and Natasha Sarin

More than a quarter of working-age households in the United States do not have sufficient savings to cover their expenditures after a month of unemployment. Recent proposals suggest giving workers early access to a small portion of their future Social Security benefits... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Personal Finance; Employment; Welfare; Insurance; Government Legislation

March 18, 2009
Article

Regulate, Baby, Regulate

The U.S. today faces its biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. That is why Barack Obama and his team have been looking to Franklin Delano Roosevelt for help. The stimulus measure passed by Congress in February that includes money for building... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Management Teams; Infrastructure; Insurance; Negotiation Deal; Government and Politics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Credit; Banks and Banking; Debt Securities; United States