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Optimal welfare-to-work programs

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Author Info
Nicola Pavoni
Giovanni L. Violante

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Abstract

A Welfare-to-Work (WTW) program is a mix of government expenditures on “passive” (unemployment insurance, social assistance) and “active” (job search monitoring, training, wage taxes/subsidies) labor market policies targeted to the unemployed. This paper provides a dynamic principal-agent framework suitable for analyzing the optimal sequence and duration of the different WTW policies, and the dynamic pattern of payments along the unemployment spell and of taxes/subsidies upon re-employment. First, we show that the optimal program endogenously generates an absorbing policy of last resort (that we call “social assistance”) characterized by a constant lifetime payment and no active participation by the agent. Second, human capital depreciation is a necessary condition for policy transitions to be part of an optimal WTW program. Whenever training is not optimally provided, we show that the typical sequence of policies is quite simple: the program starts with standard unemployment insurance, then switches into monitored search and, finally, into social assistance. Only the presence of an optimal training activity may generate richer transition patterns. Third, the optimal benefits are generally decreasing or constant during unemployment, but they must increase after a successful spell of training. In a calibration exercise based on the U.S. labor market and on the evidence from several evaluation studies, we use our model to analyze quantitatively the features of the optimal WTW program for the U.S. economy. With respect to the existing U.S. system, the optimal WTW scheme delivers sizeable welfare gains, by providing more insurance to skilled workers and more incentives to unskilled workers.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in its series Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics with number 143.

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Date of creation: 2005
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmem:143

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Stefanie Behncke & Markus Fröhlich & Michael Lechner, 2007. "Unemployed and their Caseworkers: Should they be Friends or Foes?," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2007 2007-45, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Evelyn Ribi, 2009. "Optimal Size and Intensity of Job Search Assistance Programs," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2009 2009-19, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen. [Downloadable!]
  3. Pavoni, Nicola & Violante, Giovanni L, 2006. "Optimal Welfare-to-Work Programs," CEPR Discussion Papers 5937, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Torben M. Andersen & Michael Svarer, 2008. "The role of workfare in striking a balance between incentives and insurance in the labour market," Economics Working Papers 2008-05, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Borys Grochulski, 2008. "Limits to redistribution and intertemporal wedges : implications of Pareto optimality with private information," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Spr, pages 173-196. [Downloadable!]
  6. Trine Filges & John Kennes & Birthe Larsen & Torben Tranæs, 2007. "Labour Market Policy and the Equity-Efficiency Trade-Off," IZA Discussion Papers 2824, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  7. Hairault, Jean-Olivier & Langot, François & Ménard, Sébastien & Sopraseuth, Thepthida, 2009. "Optimal Unemployment Insurance for Older Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 4071, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  8. Filges, Trine & Kennes, John & Larsen, Birthe & Tranæs, Torben, 2006. "Labour Market Programmes and the Equity-Efficiency Trade-off," Working Papers 11-2005, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  9. Boeri, Tito & Macis, Mario, 2008. "Do Unemployment Benefits Promote or Hinder Structural Change?," IZA Discussion Papers 3371, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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