This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Work Incentive Effects of Taxing Unemployment Benefits

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Gary Solon

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

Before 1979, unemployment insurance (UI) benefits were not treated as taxable income in the United States. Several economists criticized this policy on the ground that not taxing UI benefits while taxing earned income allegedly encourages unemployed persons to conduct longer than socially optimal job searches. Since 1979, however, UI benefits received by persons in higher-income families have been subject to income tax. This paper investigates whether the introduction of benefit taxation has had the predicted effect of reducing unemployment duration.The study uses data on a sample of persons that filed for UI in 1978 or 1979 to examine whether high-income claimants collected benefits fo rshorter periods after the tax change than they did before benefits became taxable. As part of the empirical analysis, the paper develops a generalization of the Weibull distribution and applies a limited-dependent-variable technique for this distribution similar to the Tobit technique for the normal distribution. Despite some variation in the results from different model specifications, the analysis presents persuasive evidence of a tax effect on unemployment duration. The 1979 policy change is estimated to have reduced average compensated unemployment duration among the sampled high-income claimants by about one week.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w1260.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html.

As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

Publisher Info
Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 1260.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length:
Date of creation: Jan 1984
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1260

Note: LS
Contact details of provider:
Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Phone: 617-868-3900
Email:
Web page: http://www.nber.org
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: ().

Related research
Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

References listed on IDEAS
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. Feldstein, Martin S, 1978. "The Effect of Unemployment Insurance on Temporary Layoff Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(5), pages 834-46, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Hausman, Jerry A & Wise, David A, 1979. "Attrition Bias in Experimental and Panel Data: The Gary Income Maintenance Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(2), pages 455-73, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Stephen T. Marston, 1975. "The Impact of Unemployment Insurance on Job Search," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 6(1975-1), pages 13-60. [Downloadable!]
  4. Finis Welch, 1977. "What have we learned from empirical studies of unemployment insurance?," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 30(4), pages 451-461, July.
  5. Arlene Holen, 1977. "Effects of unemployment insurance entitlement on duration and job search outcome," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 30(4), pages 445-450, July.
  6. Lippman, Steven A & McCall, John J, 1976. "The Economics of Job Search: A Survey," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(3), pages 347-68, September.
  7. Rosen, Harvey S, 1976. "Taxes in a Labor Supply Model with Joint Wage-Hours Determination," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(3), pages 485-507, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Mortensen, Dale T, 1970. "Job Search, the Duration of Unemployment, and the Phillips Curve," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(5), pages 847-62, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Heckman, James J & Borjas, George J, 1980. "Does Unemployment Cause Future Unemployment? Definitions, Questions and Answers from a Continuous Time Model of Heterogeneity and State Dependence," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 47(187), pages 247-83, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Ehrenberg, Ronald G & Oaxaca, Ronald L, 1976. "Unemployment Insurance, Duration of Unemployment, and Subsequent Wage Gain," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 754-66, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Moffitt, Robert & Nicholson, Walter, 1982. "The Effect of Unemployment Insurance on Unemployment: The Case of Federal Supplemental Benefits," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(1), pages 1-11, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Gary Solon, 1981. "Unemployment Insurance, Filing Delay, and Unemployment Duration," Working Papers 524, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
  13. Lancaster, Tony, 1979. "Econometric Methods for the Duration of Unemployment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(4), pages 939-56, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Nickell, Stephen J, 1979. "Estimating the Probability of Leaving Unemployment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(5), pages 1249-66, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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. Bela Balassa, 1984. "The economic consequences of social policies in the industrial countries," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer, vol. 120(2), pages 213-227, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. James S. Costain & Michael Reiter, 2003. "Business Cycles, Unemployment Insurance, and the Calibration of Matching Models," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. repec:fth:prinin:390 is not listed on IDEAS
  4. Guido W. Imbens & Lisa M. Lynch, 1993. "Re-Employment Probabilities over the Business Cycle," NBER Working Papers 4585, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Chul-In Lee, 2000. "The Impact of Taxing Unemployment Insurance Benefits on Unemployment Duration and Post-unemployment Earnings," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 521-546, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Patricia Anderson, 1990. "The Effect of a Reemployment Bonus with the Possibility of Recall: Experimental Evidence from New Jersey," Working Papers 643, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
  7. Bruce D. Meyer & Wallace K. C. Mok, 2007. "Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Unemployment Insurance from New York State," NBER Working Papers 12865, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Bruce D. Meyer, 1994. "Natural and Quasi- Experiments in Economics," NBER Technical Working Papers 0170, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Lawrence Katz & Bruce Meyer, 1988. "The Impact of the Potential Duration of Unemployment Benefits on the Duration of Unemployment," Working Papers 621, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Michael Baker & Samuel A. Rea, Jr., 1994. "Employment Spells and Unemployment Insurance Eligibility Requirements," Working Papers reas-95-02, University of Toronto, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. Mark C. Foley, 1997. "Determinants of Unemployment Duration in Russia," Working Papers 779, Economic Growth Center, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  12. James S. Costain, 1998. "On the Quantitative Importance of Wage Bargaining Models," Economics Working Papers 262, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
  13. Van den Berg, Gerard J., 2000. "Duration Models: Specification, Identification, and Multiple Durations," MPRA Paper 9446, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. Fernando Alvarez & Marcelo Veracierto, 2000. "Labor-Market Policies in an Equilibrium Search Model," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1999, Volume 14, pages 265-316 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Bruce K. Fallick, 1989. "Unemployment Insurance and the Rate of Re-Employment of Displaced Workers," UCLA Economics Working Papers 550, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  16. repec:fth:prinin:263 is not listed on IDEAS
  17. Compaijen, B. & Vijlbrief, J.A., 1992. "Labour market and social security : a minfordian model for the Netherlands," Serie Research Memoranda 0031, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics. [Downloadable!]
  18. Alan Krueger & Jorn-Steffen Pischke, 1997. "Observations and Conjectures on the U.S. Employment Miracle," Working Papers 769, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  19. Bruce D. Meyer, 1989. "A Quasi-Experimental Approach to the Effects of Unemployment Insurance," NBER Working Papers 3159, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Carl Davidson & Stephen A. Woodbury, 1996. "Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment: Implications of the Reemployment Bonus Experiments," Staff Working Papers 96-44, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. repec:fth:prinin:241 is not listed on IDEAS
  22. Alan B. Krueger & Bruce D. Meyer, 2002. "Labor Supply Effects of Social Insurance," NBER Working Papers 9014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? The RePEc project started in 1997. Its precursor, NetEc, dates back to 1993.

This page was last updated on 2009-12-4.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.