IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejpol/v12y2020i2p159-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unemployment Insurance and Means-Tested Program Interactions: Evidence from Administrative Data

Author

Listed:
  • Pauline Leung
  • Christopher O'Leary

Abstract

We study the ways in which unemployment insurance (UI) benefits interact with other elements of the social safety net around job losses. We exploit a cutoff for UI eligibility, based on a workers' highest quarterly earnings in the past year, to generate quasi-experimental variation in UI receipt. We find that UI receipt cuts welfare (TANF) receipt by half among low-earning UI applicants but has no impact on SNAP or Medicaid usage. However, because welfare participation is low in this population, overall crowdout is small. In the quarter following layoff, UI increases total income by 55 percent (including labor earnings and transfers).

Suggested Citation

  • Pauline Leung & Christopher O'Leary, 2020. "Unemployment Insurance and Means-Tested Program Interactions: Evidence from Administrative Data," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 159-192, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:159-92
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20170262
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20170262
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://doi.org/10.3886/E109704V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20170262.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20170262.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pol.20170262?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jesse Rothstein & Robert G. Valletta, 2017. "Scraping by: Income and Program Participation After the Loss of Extended Unemployment Benefits," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 880-908, September.
    2. Nicholas Lawson, 2017. "Fiscal Externalities and Optimal Unemployment Insurance," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 281-312, November.
    3. Abadie, Alberto, 2003. "Semiparametric instrumental variable estimation of treatment response models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 231-263, April.
    4. David M. Cutler & Jonathan Gruber, 1996. "Does Public Insurance Crowd out Private Insurance?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(2), pages 391-430.
    5. Alan B. Krueger & Judd Cramer & David Cho, 2014. "Are the Long-Term Unemployed on the Margins of the Labor Market?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 45(1 (Spring), pages 229-299.
    6. Peter Ganong & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 2018. "The Decline, Rebound, and Further Rise in SNAP Enrollment: Disentangling Business Cycle Fluctuations and Policy Changes," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 153-176, November.
    7. Alan B. Krueger & Judd Cramer & David Cho, 2014. "Are the Long-Term Unemployed on the Margins of the Labor Market?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 48(1 (Spring), pages 229-299.
    8. Cullen, Julie Berry & Gruber, Jonathan, 2000. "Does Unemployment Insurance Crowd Out Spousal Labor Supply?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(3), pages 546-572, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joanna Venator, 2022. "Dual-Earner Migration Decisions, Earnings, and Unemployment Insurance," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 1052, Boston College Department of Economics.
    2. Jonathan Cohen & Geoffrey C. Schnorr, 2024. "Efficiency Costs of Unemployment Insurance Denial: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Examiners," Upjohn Working Papers 24-404, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    3. Zhang, Guanglai & Zhang, Ning, 2024. "Environmental regulation and worker earnings: Evidence from city-level air quality standards in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    4. Ando, Michihito & Furuichi, Masato & Kanayama, Hayato, 2023. "Discontinuous or Kinked Response? Dynamics of Unemployment Insurance and Public Assistance under the COVID-19 Crisis," SocArXiv vs8tr, Center for Open Science.
    5. Parolin, Zachary & Pignatti, Clemente, 2024. "Optimal Unemployment Insurance with Program Interactions," IZA Discussion Papers 17095, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pauline Leung & Christopher J. O'Leary, 2015. "Should UI Eligibility Be Expanded to Low-Earning Workers? Evidence on Employment, Transfer Receipt, and Income from Administrative Data," Upjohn Working Papers 15-236, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    2. Robert E. Hall, 2015. "Quantifying the Lasting Harm to the US Economy from the Financial Crisis," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 71-128.
    3. Johannes F. Schmieder & Till von Wachter, 2016. "The Effects of Unemployment Insurance Benefits: New Evidence and Interpretation," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 547-581, October.
    4. Heinrich Hock & Walter Nicholson & Karen Needels & Joanne Lee & Priyanka Anand, "undated". "Additional Unemployment Compensation Benefits During the Great Recession: Recipients and Their Post-Claim Outcomes," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 881bfec473cb45498e8392657, Mathematica Policy Research.
    5. Lídia Farré & Francesco Fasani & Hannes Mueller, 2018. "Feeling useless: the effect of unemployment on mental health in the Great Recession," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-34, December.
    6. Nick Buffie, 2016. "The Case for a Weak Labor Market," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2016-16, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    7. Paweł Doligalski & Abdoulaye Ndiaye & Nicolas Werquin, 2023. "Redistribution with Performance Pay," Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(2), pages 371-402.
    8. Emmanuel Duguet & Rémi Le Gall & Yannick L’Horty & Pascale Petit, 2018. "How does labour market history influence the access to hiring interviews?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(4), pages 519-533, July.
    9. Castro, Rui & Lange, Fabian & Poschke, Markus, 2024. "Labour force transitions," CLEF Working Paper Series 78, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    10. Pizzinelli, Carlo & Speigner, Bradley, 2017. "Matching efficiency and labour market heterogeneity in the United Kingdom," Bank of England working papers 667, Bank of England.
    11. Robert G. Murphy, 2019. "Can the Phillips Curve Explain Inflation over the Past Half-Century?," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 25(2), pages 137-149, May.
    12. Wouter J Den Haan & Pontus Rendahl & Markus Riegler, 2018. "Unemployment (Fears) and Deflationary Spirals," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(5), pages 1281-1349.
    13. Marente Vlekke & Martin Mellens & Siem Jan Koopmans, 2020. "An assessment of the Phillips curve over time: evidence for the United States and the euro area," CPB Discussion Paper 416, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    14. Lukas Bolte & Nicole Immorlica & Matthew O. Jackson, 2020. "The Role of Referrals in Immobility, Inequality, and Inefficiency in Labor Markets," Papers 2012.15753, arXiv.org.
    15. Ayhan Görmüş, 2019. "Long-Term Youth Unemployment: Evidence from Turkish Household Labour Force Survey," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(3), pages 341-359, September.
    16. Kiley, Michael T., 2015. "An evaluation of the inflationary pressure associated with short- and long-term unemployment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 5-9.
    17. Robert E. Hall & Sam Schulhofer-Wohl, 2018. "Measuring Job-Finding Rates and Matching Efficiency with Heterogeneous Job-Seekers," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 1-32, January.
    18. Baert, Stijn, 2021. "The iceberg decomposition: A parsimonious way to map the health of labour markets," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 350-365.
    19. Thomas Barnay & Emmanuel Duguet & Christine Le Clainche, 2019. "The Effects of Breast Cancer on Individual Labour Market Outcomes: An Evaluation from an Administrative Panel in France," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 136, pages 103-126.
    20. Chodorow-Reich, Gabriel & Coglianese, John, 2021. "Projecting unemployment durations: A factor-flows simulation approach with application to the COVID-19 recession," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:159-92. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.