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The Value of Unemployment Insurance
[Choice Inconsistencies Among the Elderly: Evidence from Plan Choice in the Medicare Part D Program]

Author

Listed:
  • Camille Landais
  • Johannes Spinnewijn

Abstract

Due to the absence of unemployment insurance (UI) choices, the traditional approach to estimating the value of UI is to infer it from the observed consumption response to job loss under some assumption on risk preferences. Exploiting the rich data and unique policy context in Sweden, we propose two alternative approaches that relax this assumption and we implement all three methods on the same sample of workers. The first approach considers the difference in marginal propensity to consume (MPC) when unemployed versus employed, which allows to identify the difference in prices to smooth consumption in the respective states. The second approach exploits UI choices embedded in the Swedish UI system in a Revealed Preference approach. While the drop in consumption expenditures is relatively small (13%), we find that the MPC is around 25% higher when unemployed than employed, translating into a marginal value of transfers that is at least % higher when unemployed than employed. This high value of UI is confirmed by our RP estimates and indicates substantial risk aversion given the relatively small drop in consumption expenditures.

Suggested Citation

  • Camille Landais & Johannes Spinnewijn, 2021. "The Value of Unemployment Insurance [Choice Inconsistencies Among the Elderly: Evidence from Plan Choice in the Medicare Part D Program]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(6), pages 3041-3085.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:88:y:2021:i:6:p:3041-3085.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/restud/rdaa086
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Marcela Ibanez & Sebastian O. Schneider, 2023. "Income Risk, Precautionary Saving, and Loss Aversion – An Empirical Test," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2023_06, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    2. Ferey, Antoine, 2022. "Redistribution and Unemployment Insurance," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 345, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    3. Seibold, Arthur & Seitz, Sebastian & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2022. "Privatizing Disability Insurance," CEPR Discussion Papers 17568, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Kolsrud, Jonas & Landais, Camille & Spinnewijn, Johannes, 2020. "The value of registry data for consumption analysis: An application to health shocks," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    5. Liepmann, Hannah & Pignatti, Clemente, 2024. "Welfare effects of unemployment benefits when informality is high," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    6. Rich Ryan, 2023. "Discretionary Extensions to Unemployment Insurance Compensation and Some Potential Costs for a McCall Worker," Risks, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-39, September.
    7. Peter Levell & Barra Roantree & Jonathan Shaw, 2021. "Mobility and the lifetime distributional impact of tax and transfer reforms," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(4), pages 751-793, August.
    8. Mahmoudi, Samir Elsadek, 2023. "Late-career unemployment shocks, pension outcomes and unemployment insurance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    9. Huang, Po-Chun & Yang, Tzu-Ting, 2021. "The welfare effects of extending unemployment benefits: Evidence from re-employment and unemployment transfers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    10. Lichter, Andreas & Schiprowski, Amelie, 2021. "Benefit duration, job search behavior and re-employment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    11. Benjamin A. Olken & Rema Hanna & Phitawat Poonpolkul & Nada Wasi, 2024. "Willingness-To-Pay vs Administrative Hurdles: Understanding Barriers to Social Insurance Enrollment in Thailand," PIER Discussion Papers 223, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Itzik Fadlon & Shanthi P. Ramnath & Patricia K. Tong, 2019. "Market Inefficiency and Household Labor Supply: Evidence from Social Security’s Survivors Benefits," NBER Working Papers 25586, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. You-Shyang Chen & Chien-Ku Lin & Yu-Sheng Lin & Su-Fen Chen & Huei-Hua Tsao, 2022. "Identification of Potential Valid Clients for a Sustainable Insurance Policy Using an Advanced Mixed Classification Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-22, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment insurance; Consumption smoothing; Revealed preference; MPC;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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