[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v14y1995i2p245-269.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do bonus offers shorten unemployment insurance spells? results from the washington experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher J. O'Leary

    (Senior Economist atthe W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research)

  • Robert G. Spiegelman

    (Executive Director Emeritus at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research)

  • Kenneth J. Kline

    (Research Analyst at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research)

Abstract
Unemployment insurance is intended to reduce hardship by providing labor force members with partial wage replacement during periods of involuntary unemployment. However, in performing this income maintenance function, unemployment insurance may prolong spells of unemployment. Evidence from a field experiment conducted in Illinois in 1984 suggested that offering unemployment insurance claimants a modest cash bonus for rapid reemployment would increase the speed of return to work and reduce program costs. In 1988 a similar experiment, examining several different bonus offers, was conducted in the state of Washington. Evidence from the Washington experiment indicates that bonus offers do change job seeking behavior, but that only relatively generous bonus offers-about six times the weekly benefit amount-should be expected to significantly change the behavior of people eligible for unemployment benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher J. O'Leary & Robert G. Spiegelman & Kenneth J. Kline, 1995. "Do bonus offers shorten unemployment insurance spells? results from the washington experiment," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(2), pages 245-269.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:14:y:1995:i:2:p:245-269
    DOI: 10.2307/3325152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2307/3325152
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2307/3325152?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rebecca M. Blank & David E. Card, 1991. "Recent Trends in Insured and Uninsured Unemployment: Is There an Explanation?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(4), pages 1157-1189.
    2. Walter Corson & Paul T. Decker & Shari Miller Dunstan & Anne R. Gordon, "undated". "The New Jersey Unemployment Insurance Reemployment Demonstration Project: Final Evaluation Report," Mathematica Policy Research Reports a1188b0b75ad4085ab98457be, Mathematica Policy Research.
    3. repec:mpr:mprres:856 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Robert J. Gordon, 1973. "The Welfare Cost of Higher Unemployment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 4(1), pages 133-206.
    5. Carl Davidson, 1990. "Recent Developments in the Theory of Involuntary Unemployment," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number rdtiu.
    6. Patricia Anderson & Walter Corson & Paul Decker, "undated". "The New Jersey Unemployment Insurance Reemployment Demonstration Project: Follow-Up Report," Mathematica Policy Research Reports eba060d41b8145b5a230fa76b, Mathematica Policy Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. van der Klaauw, B. & van Ours, J.C., 2010. "Carrot and Stick : How Reemployment Bonuses and Benefit Sanctions Affect Job Finding Rates," Other publications TiSEM f368f876-0bd7-499d-8211-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Louis S. Jacobson & Robert J. LaLonde & Daniel G. Sullivan, 2005. "Is retraining displaced workers a good investment?," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 29(Q II), pages 47-66.
    3. Christopher J. O’Leary & Paul T. Decke & Stephen A. Wandner, 2005. "Cost-Effectiveness of Targeted Reemployment Bonuses," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(1).
    4. Carl Davidson & Stephen A. Woodbury, 1996. "Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Implications of the Reemployment Bonus Experiments," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Advisory Council on Unemployment Compensation: Background Papers, volume 3, pages KK1-KK37, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    5. Yosuke Oda, 2008. "Alteration in Skills and Career-Enhancing in a Frictional Labor Market," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 08-09, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    6. repec:mpr:mprres:3507 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Christopher J. O'Leary, 2017. "Evaluating Public Employment Programs with Field Experiments: A Survey of American Evidence," Upjohn Working Papers 17-279, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bruce D. Meyer, 1992. "Policy Lessons from the U.S. Unemployment Experiments," NBER Working Papers 4197, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Christopher J. O'Leary & Robert G. Spiegelman & Kenneth J. Kline, 1993. "Reemployment Incentives for Unemployment Insurance Beneficiaries: Results from the Washington Reemployment Bonus Experiment," Upjohn Working Papers 93-22, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    3. Paul Decker & Christopher J. O'Leary & Stephen A. Woodbury, 2001. "Impacts on Employment and Earnings," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Philip K. Robins & Robert G. Spiegelman (ed.), Reemployment Bonuses in the Unemployment Insurance System: Evidence from Three Field Experiments, chapter 5, pages 151-174, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    4. Christopher J. O’Leary & Paul T. Decke & Stephen A. Wandner, 2005. "Cost-Effectiveness of Targeted Reemployment Bonuses," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(1).
    5. Dan A. Black & Mark C. Berger & Jeffrey A. Smith & Brett J. Noel, 1999. "Is the Threat of Training More Effective Than Training Itself? Experimental Evidence from the UI System," University of Western Ontario, Departmental Research Report Series 9907, University of Western Ontario, Department of Economics.
    6. Christopher J. O'Leary & Paul T. Decker & Stephen A. Wandner, 2002. "Targeting Reemployment Bonuses," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Stephen A. Wandner & Randall W. Eberts & Christopher J. O'Leary (ed.), Targeting Employment Services, chapter 6, pages 161-182, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    7. Philip K. Robins & Robert G. Spiegelman (ed.), 2001. "Reemployment Bonuses in the Unemployment Insurance System: Evidence from Three Field Experiments," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number rbuis.
    8. Dan A. Black & Jeffrey A. Smith & Mark C. Berger & Brett J. Noel, 2002. "Is the Threat of Reemployment Services More Effective than the Services Themselves? Experimental Evidence from the UI System," NBER Working Papers 8825, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Franco Modigliani & Lucas Papademos, 1978. "Optimal demand policies against stagflation," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 114(4), pages 736-782, December.
    10. Hansen, Gary D & Imrohoroglu, Ayse, 1992. "The Role of Unemployment Insurance in an Economy with Liquidity Constraints and Moral Hazard," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(1), pages 118-142, February.
    11. David S. Lee & Pauline Leung & Christopher J. O’Leary & Zhuan Pei & Simon Quach, 2021. "Are Sufficient Statistics Necessary? Nonparametric Measurement of Deadweight Loss from Unemployment Insurance," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(S2), pages 455-506.
    12. Bruce D. Meyer & Dan T. Rosenbaum, "undated". "Repeat Use of Unemployment Insurance," IPR working papers 95-24, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University.
    13. Currie, Janet & Fahr, John, 2005. "Medicaid managed care: effects on children's Medicaid coverage and utilization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 85-108, January.
    14. Momi Dahan & Udi Nisan, 2010. "The effect of benefits level on take-up rates: evidence from a natural experiment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 17(2), pages 151-173, April.
    15. David Card & W. Craig Riddell, 1993. "A Comparative Analysis of Unemployment in Canada and the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Small Differences That Matter: Labor Markets and Income Maintenance in Canada and the United States, pages 149-190, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Jordi Galí & Mark Gertler & J. David López-Salido, 2007. "Markups, Gaps, and the Welfare Costs of Business Fluctuations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(1), pages 44-59, November.
    17. Regina T. Riphahn, 2001. "Rational Poverty or Poor Rationality? The Take‐up of Social Assistance Benefits," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 47(3), pages 379-398, September.
    18. Dar, Amit & Gill, Indermit S, 1998. "Evaluating Retraining Programs in OECD Countries: Lessons Learned," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 13(1), pages 79-101, February.
    19. Gabriel Chodorow-Reich & Loukas Karabarbounis, 2016. "The Limited Macroeconomic Effects of Unemployment Benefit Extensions," Working Papers 733, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    20. Aurélien Goutsmedt & Goulven Rubin, 2018. "Robert J. Gordon and the introduction of the natural rate hypothesis in the Keynesian framework," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01821825, HAL.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • 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

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:14:y:1995:i:2:p:245-269. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.