Full Citation

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

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2020

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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).

Url: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20170262

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Leung, Pauline; O'Leary, Christopher

Periodical (Full): AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL: ECONOMIC POLICY

Issue: 2

Volume: 12

Pages: 159-192

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Other

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