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Informal Family Insurance and the Design of the Welfare State

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Author Info
Rafael Di Tella
Robert MacCulloch

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Abstract

We study the problem of unemployment benefit provision when the family is also a provider of social insurance. As a benchmark, a simple model is presented where risk-sharing motives govern intra-family transfers and more generous unemployment benefits, provided by the State, crowd out family risk-sharing arrangements one-for-one. The model is then extended to capture the idea that the State has an advantage vis-a-vis the family in the provision of insurance because it can tax individuals, whereas the family must rely on self-enforcing agreements. In this case, the effect of State transfers on intra-family transfers is found to be more than one-for-one. Thus, somewhat perversely, both informal transfers and total insurance transfers to the unemployed fall as the State's generosity increases. This does not imply that the optimal Welfare State is zero. Our results still hold when families are assumed to be better than the State at monitoring the job search activities of the unemployed.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research in its series JCPR Working Papers with number 44.

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Date of creation: 01 Sep 1998
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Handle: RePEc:wop:jopovw:44

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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.:
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  27. Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen, 1991. "Public Provision of Private Goods and the Redistribution of Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(4), pages 979-84, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  34. Besley, Timothy, 1995. "Nonmarket Institutions for Credit and Risk Sharing in Low-Income Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 115-27, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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. Samuel Bentolila & Andrea Ichino, 2000. "Unemployment and Consumption: Are Job Losses Less Painful near the Mediterranean?," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Stefan Hochguertel & Henry Ohlsson, 2000. "Compensatory inter vivos gifts," Economics Working Paper Archive 319, Levy Economics Institute, The. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Jonathan Thomas & Tim Worral, 2004. "Unemployment Insurance under Moral Hazard and Limited Commitment: Public versus Private Provision," ESE Discussion Papers 95, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Robert MacCulloch, 2001. "Does Social Insurance Help Secure Property Rights?," STICERD - Development Economics Papers 31, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  5. Jonathan P Thomas & Tim Worrall, 2002. "Unemployment Insurance under Moral Hazard and Limited Commitment: Public vs Private Provision," Keele Economics Research Papers KERP 2002/20, Centre for Economic Research, Keele University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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