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How do politicians save? Buffer-stock management of unemployment insurance finance

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  • Craig, Steven G.
  • Hemissi, Wided
  • Mukherjee, Satadru
  • Sørensen, Bent E.

Abstract

We fit an empirical structural model of forward looking government savings behavior to data from the U.S. state Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs 1976–2008. States increase benefits or lower taxes when Unemployment Trust fund balances are high, consistent with a desired target level of savings. This can be explained by the representative state program behaving like a Carroll (1992) buffer-stock consumer who trades off a desire to expend savings (impatience) against the fear of running out of funds (risk aversion). We calibrate the model to the data and find that statistics from model simulations match similar statistics produced from the data for reasonable levels of risk aversion and impatience.

Suggested Citation

  • Craig, Steven G. & Hemissi, Wided & Mukherjee, Satadru & Sørensen, Bent E., 2016. "How do politicians save? Buffer-stock management of unemployment insurance finance," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 18-29.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:93:y:2016:i:c:p:18-29
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2016.02.002
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    Cited by:

    1. Mathias Dolls & Clemens Fuest & Dirk Neumann & Andreas Peichl, 2018. "An unemployment insurance scheme for the euro area? A comparison of different alternatives using microdata," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(1), pages 273-309, February.
    2. Christopher Biolsi & H. Youn Kim, 2021. "Analyzing state government spending: balanced budget rules or forward-looking decisions?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(4), pages 1035-1079, August.
    3. Solé-Ollé, Albert & Viladecans-Marsal, Elisabet, 2017. "Housing booms and busts and local fiscal policy," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-001, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Christopher Biolsi & Steven Craig & Amrita Dhar & Bent Sorensen, 2022. "Inequality in Public School Spending Across Space and Time," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 46, pages 244-279, October.
    5. Solé-Ollé, Albert & Viladecans-Marsal, Elisabet, 2019. "Housing booms and local spending," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Government savings; Unemployment insurance; Impatience; Prudence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H74 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Borrowing
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

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