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Does Job Search Monitoring Intensity Affect Unemployment? Evidence from Northern Ireland

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  • DUNCAN McVICAR

Abstract

Because unemployment benefit reforms typically package together a number of changes, few existing evaluations have been able to isolate the effects of changes in job search monitoring intensity on benefit recipient stocks or flows. Those few studies that do so draw mixed conclusions. This paper provides new estimates of monitoring impacts by exploiting plausibly exogenous periods where search monitoring has been temporarily withdrawn – with the regime otherwise unchanged – during a series of benefit office refurbishments in Northern Ireland. As we would expect from search theory, withdrawal of monitoring significantly increases the stock of unemployment benefit recipients via reduced outflows.

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  • DUNCAN McVICAR, 2010. "Does Job Search Monitoring Intensity Affect Unemployment? Evidence from Northern Ireland," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(306), pages 296-313, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:77:y:2010:i:306:p:296-313
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0335.2008.00747.x
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    Cited by:

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    3. Seamus McGuinness & Philip J. O’Connell & Elish Kelly, 2019. "Carrots, No Stick, No Driver: The Employment Impact of Job Search Assistance in a Regime with Minimal Monitoring and Sanctions," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 151-180, June.
    4. Andrew Wright & Brian Dollery & Michael Kortt & Shawn Leu, 2020. "Examining the Effects of Zero‐Dollar Unemployment Payment Sanctions," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(315), pages 490-505, December.
    5. Arni, Patrick & Schiprowski, Amelie, 2019. "Job search requirements, effort provision and labor market outcomes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 65-88.
    6. Laporšek Suzana & Vodopivec Milan & Vodopivec Matija, 2022. "Activation programs for unemployment benefit recipients in Slovenia," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 22(2), pages 75-95, June.
    7. Desmond Toohey, 2021. "The effects of unemployment insurance in late career: Evidence from Social Security offsets," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(2), pages 628-648, October.
    8. Tulio Cravo & Christopher J. O'Leary & Ana Cristina Sierra & Leandro Justino Veloso, 2020. "Heterogeneous impacts on layoffs of changes in Brazilian unemployment insurance eligibility rules," Upjohn Working Papers 20-318, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    9. Cheryl Sykes, 2023. "How Australia's employment services system fails jobseekers: Insights from self-determination theory," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 26(1), pages 84-113.
    10. Lukas Fervers, 2016. "Fast track to the labour market or highway to hell? The effect of activation policies on quantity and quality of labour market integration," IAW Discussion Papers 125, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW).
    11. Andrew Wright & Brian Dollery, 2020. "The impact of varying penalty values on compliance with unemployment payment requirements: An analysis using 2015/16 Australian National Data," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 23(1), pages 1-20.
    12. Morescalchi Andrea & Paruolo Paolo, 2020. "Too Much Stick for the Carrot? Job Search Requirements and Search Behaviour of Unemployment Benefit Claimants," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(1), pages 1-21, January.

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