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Supply side hysteresis: the case of the Canadian unemployment insurance system

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  • Lemieux, Thomas
  • MacLeod, W. Bentley

Abstract

This paper presents results from a 1971 natural experiment carried out by the Canadian government on the unemployment insurance system. At that time they dramatically increased the generosity of the system. We find that the propensity to collect UI increases with a first time exposure to the system. Hence as more individuals experience unemployment, their lifetime use of the system increases. This supply side hysteresis effect may explain why unemployment has steadily increased over the 1972-1992 period, even though the generosity of unemployment insurance did not.
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  • Lemieux, Thomas & MacLeod, W. Bentley, 2000. "Supply side hysteresis: the case of the Canadian unemployment insurance system," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1-2), pages 139-170, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:78:y:2000:i:1-2:p:139-170
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    Cited by:

    1. MacLeod, W. Bentley, 2011. "Great Expectations: Law, Employment Contracts, and Labor Market Performance," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 18, pages 1591-1696, Elsevier.
    2. Lemieux, Thomas & MacLeod, W. Bentley, 2000. "Supply side hysteresis: the case of the Canadian unemployment insurance system," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1-2), pages 139-170, October.
    3. Johannes F. Schmieder & Till M. von Wachter & Stefan Bender, 2012. "The Long-Term Effects of Unemployment Insurance Extensions on Employment," NBER Working Papers 17814, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Jesse Rothstein & Till von Wachter, 2016. "Social Experiments in the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 22585, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Kuhn, Peter J. & Riddell, Chris, 2006. "The Long-Term Effects of a Generous Income Support Program: Unemployment Insurance in New Brunswick and Maine, 1940-1991," IZA Discussion Papers 1919, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Jean-Baptiste Michau, 2013. "Unemployment Insurance And Cultural Transmission: Theory And Application To European Unemployment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(6), pages 1320-1347, December.
    7. Miles Corak & Wen-Hao Chen, 2007. "Firms, Industries, and Unemployment Insurance: An Analysis using Employer–Employee Data," Research in Labor Economics, in: Aspects of Worker Well-Being, pages 299-336, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    8. Corak, Miles & Gustafsson, Björn Anders & Österberg, Torun, 2000. "Intergenerational Influences on the Receipt of Unemployment Insurance in Canada and Sweden," IZA Discussion Papers 184, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. David Gray & Ted McDonald, 2012. "Does the sophistication of use of unemployment insurance evolve with experience?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(3), pages 1220-1245, August.
    10. Simon Jäger & Benjamin Schoefer & Samuel Young & Josef Zweimüller, 2020. "Wages and the Value of Nonemployment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(4), pages 1905-1963.
    11. Mark Partridge & Dan Rickman, 2009. "Canadian regional labour market evolutions: a long-run restrictions SVAR analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(15), pages 1855-1871.
    12. Chen, Wen-Hao & Corak, Miles, 2005. "Entreprises, industries et assurance-chomage : une analyse des donnees sur les employeurs et les employes recueillies au Canada," Direction des études analytiques : documents de recherche 2005260f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    13. Kroft, Kory, 2008. "Takeup, social multipliers and optimal social insurance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3-4), pages 722-737, April.
    14. Johannes F. Schmieder & Till von Wachter & Stefan Bender, 2012. "The Long-Term Effects of UI Extensions on Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 514-519, May.
    15. Marcel Dagenais & Pierre Mohnen & Pierre Therrien, 1997. "Do Canadian Firms Respond to Fiscal Incentives to Research and Development?," CIRANO Working Papers 97s-34, CIRANO.
    16. MacLeod, W Bentley, 2016. "Human capital: Linking behavior to rational choice via dual process theory," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 20-31.
    17. Martin Ljunge, 2012. "The Spirit of the Welfare State? Adaptation in the Demand for Social Insurance," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(3), pages 187-223.
    18. Sumit Agarwal & John C Driscoll & Xavier Gabaix & David Laibson, 2008. "Learning in the Credit Card Market," Levine's Working Paper Archive 122247000000002028, David K. Levine.
    19. John Horton, 2021. "The Ruble Collapse in an Online Marketplace: Some Lessons for Market Designers," Papers 2104.06170, arXiv.org.
    20. Cravo, Túlio & O’Leary, Christopher & Sierra, Ana Cristina & Veloso, Leandro, 2020. "Heterogeneous effects of Brazilian unemployment insurance reforms on layoffs," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    21. Katherin Ross Phillips & Timothy Smeeding, 1999. "Social Protection for the Poor in the Developed World: The Evidence from LIS," LIS Working papers 204, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    22. Mario Fortin & Pierre Fortin, 1999. "The Changing Labour Force Participation of Canadians, 1969-96: Evidence from a Panel of Six Demographic Groups," A Symposium on Canadian Labour Force Participation in the 1990s (Special Issue of Canadian Business Economics, Volume 7, Number 2, May 1999), in: Andrew Sharpe & Louis Grignon (ed.),A Symposium on Canadian Labour Force Participation in the 1990s (Special Issue of Canadian Business Economics, Volume 7, Number 2, May 1999), pages 12-24, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    23. 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.

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    20. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3085-3139 is not listed on IDEAS
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • 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

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