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Can the Unemployed Borrow? Implications for Public Insurance

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  • J. Carter Braxton
  • Kyle Herkenhoff
  • Gordon M. Phillips

Abstract

We empirically establish that unemployed individuals maintain significant access to credit and that upon a layoff, the unconstrained borrow while the constrained default and delever. Motivated by these findings, we develop a theory of credit lines and labor income risk to analyze optimal transfers to the unemployed. Since credit lines offer fixed interest rates and limits, credit lines are unresponsive to layoffs and provide greater consumption insurance relative to when debt is repriced period by period. At US levels of credit lines, the government can optimally reduce transfers to the unemployed, whereas this is not true when debt is counterfactually repriced period by period.

Suggested Citation

  • J. Carter Braxton & Kyle Herkenhoff & Gordon M. Phillips, 2024. "Can the Unemployed Borrow? Implications for Public Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(9), pages 3025-3076.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/729583
    DOI: 10.1086/729583
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    Cited by:

    1. Kyle F. Herkenhoff, 2025. "Comment on "Credit Scores and Inequality Across the Life Cycle" 2," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2025, volume 40, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Christa Gibbs & Benedict Guttman-Kenney & Donghoon Lee & Scott Nelson & Wilbert van der Klaauw & Jialan Wang, 2025. "Consumer Credit Reporting Data," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 63(2), pages 598-636, June.
    3. Maczulskij, Terhi & Kanninen, Ohto & Karhunen, Hannu & Tahvonen, Ossi, 2025. "The Debt Burden of Job Loss in a Nordic Welfare State," IZA Discussion Papers 17940, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Kim, Seonghoon & Wang, Lanjie, 2024. "Navigating Unemployment without Unemployment Insurance: Evidence from Singapore," IZA Discussion Papers 17299, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Joaquín Saldain, 2025. "High-Cost Consumer Credit: Desperation, Temptation and Default," Staff Working Papers 25-6, Bank of Canada.

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