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Unemployment benefit systems in Central and Eastern Europe : a review of the 1990s

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  • Vodopivec, Milan
  • Worgotter, Andreas
  • Raju, Dhushyanth

Abstract

One of the most conspicuous consequences of the transition of former socialist economies has been the emergence of large-scale, open unemployment - a phenomenon unheard of before the transition. These economies have thus been confronted with the difficult task of protecting the unemployed while avoiding undue fiscal costs and minimizing work disincentives created by such protection. Faced with the prospect of high unemployment, many transition economies introduced traditional, OECD-style unemployment insurance programs. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate those programs by examining their distributive and efficiency effects. To address distributive issues (an aspect so far neglected by researchers), we analyze data from household expenditure surveys and try to answer the following to questions: Which groups of workers benefited most? How have these programs changed the pre-transfer distribution of income? To examine efficiency effects, we review the existing literature. The questions that have received the most attention are: Have unemployment benefits created work disincentives? In particular, have more generous replacement rates and longer benefit durations affected the length of unemployment spells? We also examine whether the introduction of unemployment benefit programs has helped to speed up enterprise restructuring.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Social Protection Discussion Papers with number 26307.

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Date of creation: 31 Mar 2003
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wbk:hdnspu:26307

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Related research

Keywords: Labor Markets; Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Social Protections&Assistance; Youth and Governance; Environmental Economics&Policies;

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Cited by:
  1. Klugman, Jeni & Micklewright, John & Redmond, Gerry, 2002. "Poverty in the Transition: Social Expenditures and the Working-Age Poor," CEPR Discussion Papers 3389, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  2. Vroman, Wayne, 2002. "Unemployment insurance and unemployment assistance : a comparison," Social Protection Discussion Papers 24084, The World Bank.
  3. Joanna TYROWICZ & Piotr W�JCIK, 2009. "Some Remarks On The Effects Of Active Labour Market Policies In Post-Transition," Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, Spiru Haret University, Faculty of Financial Management and Accounting Craiova, vol. 4(2(8)_ Sum).
  4. Esguerra, Jude H. & Ogawa, Makoto & Vodopivec, Milan, 2002. "Options of public income support for the unemployed in the Philippines and social protection," Social Protection Discussion Papers 25509, The World Bank.
  5. Pierre, Gaëlle & Scarpetta, Stefano, 2004. "Employment Regulations through the Eyes of Employers: Do They Matter and How Do Firms Respond to Them?," IZA Discussion Papers 1424, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  6. Marek Gora & Artur Radziwill & Agnieszka Sowa & Mateusz Walewski, 2006. "Tax Wedge and Skills: Case of Poland in International Perspective," CASE Network Reports 0064, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
  7. Almeida, Rita & Arbelaez, Juliana & Honorati, Maddalena & Kuddo, Arvo & Lohmann, Tanja & Ovadiya, Mirey & Pop, Lucian & Puerta, Maria Laura Sanchez & Weber, Michael, 2012. "Improving access to jobs and earnings opportunities : the role of activation and graduation policies in developing countries," Social Protection Discussion Papers 67610, The World Bank.
  8. Martin Schindler & Mariya Aleksynska, 2011. "Labor Market Regulations in Low-, Middle- and High-Income Countries: A New Panel Database," IMF Working Papers 11/154, International Monetary Fund.
  9. Michael Landesmann & Hermine Vidovic, 2006. "Employment Developments in Central and Eastern Europe," wiiw Research Reports 332, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
  10. Tito Boeri & Katherine Terrell, 2001. "Institutional Determinants of Labor Reallocation in Transition," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 384, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
  11. Vodopivec, Milan & Raju, Dhushyanth, 2002. "Income support systems for the unemployed : issues and options," Social Protection Discussion Papers 25529, The World Bank.
  12. Ours, Jan van & Vodopivec, Milan, 2005. "How changes in benefits entitlement affect job-finding: lessons from the slovenian experiment," Social Protection Discussion Papers 32548, The World Bank.
  13. Mária Lackó, 2004. "Tax Rates and Corruption: Labour-market and Fiscal Effects. Empirical cross-country comparisons on OECD and transition countries," wiiw Research Reports 309, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
  14. Joanna Tyrowicz & Piotr Wojcik, 2010. "Active Labour Market Policies and Unemployment Convergence in Transition," Review of Economic Analysis, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, vol. 2(1), pages 46-72, January.
  15. Buchen, Clemens, 2010. "Emerging economic systems in Central and Eastern Europe – a qualitative and quantitative assessment," EconStor Theses, ZBW - German National Library of Economics, number 37141.
  16. Ale?Ahcan & Saso Polanec, 2008. "Social Security and Retirement during Transition:Microeconometric Evidence from Slovenia," LICOS Discussion Papers 22108, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
  17. Niall O’Higgins, 2004. "Recent Trends in Youth Labour Markets and Youth Employment Policy in Europe and Central Asia," CELPE Discussion Papers 85, CELPE (Centre of Labour Economics and Economic Policy), University of Salerno, Italy.

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