IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/upj/weupjo/rtcjo1997.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Unemployment Insurance Policy in New England: Background and Issues

Author

Abstract

Most states have exhausted their unemployment insurance (UI) trust fund and borrowed from the federal government at least once during the past 35 years. Under such circumstances, states are required by law to raise UI taxes to replenish their trust funds and to pay off their debts to the federal government. Since higher UI taxes increase employer costs, replenishment forces states into a trade-off between economic competitiveness and trust fund adequacy. Competitive pressures have raised questions about prevailing standards of adequacy and the speed at which they should be attained. Consequently, several states are contemplating tax reductions despite low reserves. This article provides background information and analysis intended to clarify issues underlying the UI policies of New England in general and a tax reduction under consideration in Massachusetts in particular. The main point is that alternative UI policies should not be judged solely by the yardsticks of economic competitiveness and trust fund adequacy. Allocative neutrality and economic stabilization are also relevant concerns. UI systems necessarily force some industries to subsidize others, thereby distorting the allocation of resources in favor of subsidized firms. Yet, many of the same features responsible for these allocative distortions affect economic stability. Every UI alternative entails trade-offs among these rival concerns.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Tannenwald & Christopher J. O'Leary, "undated". "Unemployment Insurance Policy in New England: Background and Issues," Upjohn Working Papers rtcjo1997, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:upj:weupjo:rtcjo1997
    Note: Appears in New England Economic Review (May/June 1997): 3-22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/neer/neer1997/neer397a.pdf
    Download Restriction: All working papers are copyrighted.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph M. Becker, 1980. "Unemployment Benefits: Should There Be a Compulsory Federal Standard?," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 650799, September.
    2. Christopher J. O'Leary, 1998. "The Adequacy of Unemployment Insurance Benefits," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Laurie J. Bassi & Stephen A. Woodbury (ed.),Reform of the Unemployment Insurance System: Research in Employment Policy, volume 1, pages 63-110, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    3. Frank Brechling & Louise Laurence, 1995. "Permanent Job Loss and the U.S. System of Financing Unemployment Insurance," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number pjl, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wayne Vroman & Stephen A. Woodbury, 2014. "Financing Unemployment Insurance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 67(1), pages 253-268, March.
    2. José María Arranz & Carlos García Serrano, 2015. "Los sistemas de prestaciones por desempleo de “experience rating”. Un análisis de los despidos temporales y los subsidios cruzados en España," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 212(1), pages 129-168, March.
    3. Yolanda Kodrzycki, 1998. "Effects of employer-provided severance benefits on reemployment outcomes," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Nov, pages 41-68.
    4. Christopher J. O'Leary & Robert Tannenwald & Wei-Jang Huang & Pei Zhu, 2000. "Alternative Measures of State UI Systems," Upjohn Working Papers 00-62, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Glismann, Hans H. & Schrader, Klaus, 2001. "Alternative Systeme der Arbeitslosenversicherung: das Beispiel der Vereinigten Staaten und des Vereinigten Königreichs," Kiel Working Papers 1032, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. Christopher J. O'Leary & Stephen A. Wandner, 2001. "Unemployment Compensation and Older Workers," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Peter P. Budetti & Richard V. Burkhauser & Janice M. Gregory & H. Allan Hunt (ed.), Ensuring Health and Income Security for an Aging Workforce, pages 85-133, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    3. Christopher J. O'Leary & Stephen A. Wandner, 1997. "Summing Up: Achievements, Problems, and Prospects," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Christopher J. O'Leary & Stephen A. Wandner (ed.), Unemployment Insurance in the United States: Analysis of Policy Issues, chapter 15, pages 669-722, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    4. Marta Lachowska & Wayne Vroman & Stephen A. Woodbury, 2020. "Experience Rating and the Dynamics of Financing Unemployment Insurance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 73(3), pages 673-698, September.
    5. Carl Davidson & Stephen A. Woodbury, 1997. "The Optimal Dole with Risk Aversion, Job Destruction, and Worker Heterogeneity," Upjohn Working Papers 97-47, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    6. Cook, Zena, 1997. "Temporary layoffs in the U.S. unemployment insurance system: A comparison of two experience rating methods," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 823-841.
    7. Stephen A. Woodbury & Murray Rubin, 1997. "The Duration of Benefits," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Christopher J. O'Leary & Stephen A. Wandner (ed.), Unemployment Insurance in the United States: Analysis of Policy Issues, chapter 6, pages 211-283, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    8. Christopher J. O'Leary, 1990. "An Econometric Analysis of Unemployment Insurance Benefit Adequacy," Upjohn Working Papers 90-05, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    9. Christopher J. O'Leary & Robert A. Straits, 2004. "Intergovernmental Relations in Employment Policy: The United States Experience," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Alain Noel (ed.),Federalism and Labour market Policy: Comparing Different Governance and Employment Strategies, pages 25-82, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    10. Christopher J. O'Leary & Robert Tannenwald & Wei-Jang Huang & Pei Zhu, 2000. "Alternative Measures of State UI Systems," Upjohn Working Papers 00-62, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    11. Jonathan Gruber, 1999. "The Wealth of the Unemployed: Adequacy and Implications for Unemployment Insurance," NBER Working Papers 7348, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Stephen A. Woodbury, 2002. "Income Replacement and Reemployment Programs in Michigan and Neighboring States," Upjohn Working Papers 02-86, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    unemployment insurance; unemployment compensation; ui; new england;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:upj:weupjo:rtcjo1997. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/upjohus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.