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Does Extending Unemployment Benefits Improve Job Quality? Comment

Author

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  • Zhan, Zhaoguo

Abstract

In contrast with a large body of existing literature, Nekoei and Weber (2017, NW henceforth) find a positive effect of unemployment insurance on job quality. This comment shows that NW's finding is driven by unnecessarily large bandwidths used in their regression discontinuity analysis. When the focus is on the data near the cutoff of the regression discontinuity design, the significantly positive effect documented in NW vanishes. Thus, re-examining NW's empirical analysis leads to results that are consistent with, rather than contrary to, many past studies. Our findings indicate the importance of using a range of bandwidths in future studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhan, Zhaoguo, 2020. "Does Extending Unemployment Benefits Improve Job Quality? Comment," MPRA Paper 102722, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:102722
    as

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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/102722/7/MPRA_paper_102722.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Card & Raj Chetty & Andrea Weber, 2007. "Cash-on-Hand and Competing Models of Intertemporal Behavior: New Evidence from the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1511-1560.
    2. Rafael Lalive, 2007. "Unemployment Benefits, Unemployment Duration, and Post-Unemployment Jobs: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 108-112, May.
    3. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Max H. Farrell, 2018. "On the Effect of Bias Estimation on Coverage Accuracy in Nonparametric Inference," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 113(522), pages 767-779, April.
    4. Arash Nekoei & Andrea Weber, 2017. "Does Extending Unemployment Benefits Improve Job Quality?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(2), pages 527-561, February.
    5. van Ours, Jan C. & Vodopivec, Milan, 2008. "Does reducing unemployment insurance generosity reduce job match quality?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3-4), pages 684-695, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    unemployment insurance; job quality; regression discontinuity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • 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

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