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The Long-Term Effects of a Generous Income Support Program: Unemployment Insurance in New Brunswick and Maine, 1940-1991

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  • Peter Kuhn
  • Chris Riddell

Abstract

Using data spanning a half century for adjacent jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada, we study the long-term effects of a very generous unemployment insurance (UI)program on weeks worked. We find large effects. For example, in 1990, about 6 percent of employed men in Maine's northernmost counties worked fewer than 26 weeks per year; just across the border in New Brunswick that figure was over 20 percent. According to our estimates, New Brunswick's much more generous UI system accounts for about two thirds of this differential. Even greater effects are found among women and less-educated men. We argue that our longer-run, crossnational perspective generates more substantial estimates of program effects because it captures workers' abilities to make a wider variety of adjustments to programs they expect to be permanent.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Kuhn & Chris Riddell, 2006. "The Long-Term Effects of a Generous Income Support Program: Unemployment Insurance in New Brunswick and Maine, 1940-1991," NBER Working Papers 11932, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11932
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Moretti, Enrico, 2011. "Local Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 14, pages 1237-1313, Elsevier.
    3. Colin Busby & Alexandre Laurin & David Gray, 2009. "Back to Basics: Restoring Equity and Efficiency in the EI Program - EI Reform Part II," e-briefs 84, C.D. Howe Institute.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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