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Cash-on-Hand and the Duration of Job Search: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Norway

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  • Christoph Basten
  • Andreas Fagereng
  • Kjetil Telle

Abstract

We identify the causal effect of lump-sum severance payments on non-employment duration in Norway by exploiting a discontinuity in eligibility at age 50. We find that a severance payment worth 1.2 months’ earnings at the median lowers the fraction re-employed after a year by seven percentage points. Data on household wealth enable us to verify that the effect is decreasing in prior wealth, which favors an interpretation as liquidity constraints over the alternative of mental accounting. Finding liquidity constraints in Norway, despite its equitable wealth distribution and generous welfare state, means they are likely to exist also in other countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Basten & Andreas Fagereng & Kjetil Telle, 2012. "Cash-on-Hand and the Duration of Job Search: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Norway," CESifo Working Paper Series 3898, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3898
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Christoph Basten & Andreas Fagereng & Kjetil Telle, 2016. "Saving and Portfolio Allocation Before and After Job Loss," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(2-3), pages 293-324, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Vargas Juliana Mesén & Linden Bruno Van der, 2019. "Why Cash Transfer Programs Can Both Stimulate and Slow Down Job Finding," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-27, June.
    2. Koray Aktas, 2021. "Characterizing Life-Cycle Dynamics of Annual Days of Work, Wages, and Cross-Covariances," Working Papers 465, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics.
    3. François Fontaine & Janne Nyborg Jensen & Rune Vejlin, 2019. "Wealth, Portfolios, and Unemployment Duration," 2019 Meeting Papers 949, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    4. Kyyrä, Tomi & Pesola, Hanna & Rissanen, Aarne, 2017. "Unemployment Insurance in Finland: A Review of Recent Changes and Empirical Evidence on Behavioral Responses," Research Reports 184, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Milan Vodopivec, 2013. "Introducing unemployment insurance to developing countries," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-23, December.
    6. Basten, Christoph & Koch, Catherine, 2015. "The causal effect of house prices on mortgage demand and mortgage supply: Evidence from Switzerland," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 1-22.
    7. Mesén Vargas, Juliana & Van der Linden, Bruno, 2017. "Is There Always a Trade-off between Insurance and Incentives? The Case of Unemployment with Subsistence Constraints," IZA Discussion Papers 11034, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Konstantinos Tatsiramos & Jan C. Ours, 2014. "Labor Market Effects Of Unemployment Insurance Design," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 284-311, April.
    9. Arna Vardardottir & Michaela Pagel, 2016. "The Liquid Hand-to-Mouth: Evidence from a Personal Finance Management Software," 2016 Meeting Papers 789, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Gerards, Ruud & Welters, Riccardo, 2022. "Job search in the presence of a stressor: Does financial hardship change the effectiveness of job search?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    11. de Bruijn, Ernst-Jan & Vethaak, Heike & Koning, Pierre & Knoef, Marike, 2023. "Debt Relief for the Financially Vulnerable: Impact on Employment, Welfare Receipt, and Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 16336, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Andersson, Josefine, 2018. "Lump-sum severance grants and the duration of unemployment," Working Paper Series 2018:23, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    13. Simon Franklin, 2018. "Location, Search Costs and Youth Unemployment: Experimental Evidence from Transport Subsidies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(614), pages 2353-2379, September.
    14. Juliana Mesén Vargas, 2018. "Income Effect on Labor Outcomes for People Living in Poverty: the case of PROGRESA," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2018015, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    15. Ruud Gerards & Riccardo Welters, 2020. "Liquidity Constraints, Unemployed Job Search and Labour Market Outcomes," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(3), pages 625-646, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    unemployment; optimal unemployment insurance; liquidity constraints; mental accounting; severance pay; regression discontinuity design;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C41 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings

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