IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bis/biswps/1180.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Incentive-compatible unemployment reinsurance for the euro area

Author

Listed:
  • Alexander Karaivanov
  • Benoit Mojon
  • Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva
  • Albert Pierres Tejada
  • Robert M Townsend

Abstract

We model a reinsurance mechanism for the national unemployment insurance programs of euro area member states. The proposed risk-sharing scheme is designed to smooth country-level unemployment risk and expenditures around each country's median level, so that participation and contributions remain incentive-compatible at all times and there are no redistributionary transfers across countries. We show that, relative to the status quo, such scheme would have provided nearly perfect insurance of the euro area member states' unemployment expenditures risk in the aftermath of the 2009 sovereign debt crisis if allowed to borrow up to 2 percent of the euro area GDP. Limiting, or not allowing borrowing by the scheme would have still provided significant smoothing of surpluses and deficits in the national unemployment insurance programs over the period 2000-2019.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander Karaivanov & Benoit Mojon & Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva & Albert Pierres Tejada & Robert M Townsend, 2024. "Incentive-compatible unemployment reinsurance for the euro area," BIS Working Papers 1180, Bank for International Settlements.
    • Handle: RePEc:bis:biswps:1180
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bis.org/publ/work1180.pdf
    File Function: Full PDF document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.bis.org/publ/work1180.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Georgios Chortareas, 2013. "Fiscal Policy Rules in Monetary Unions," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 85-104.
    2. Jonathan Thomas & Tim Worrall, 1988. "Self-Enforcing Wage Contracts," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 55(4), pages 541-554.
    3. Guillaume Claveres & Jan Stráský, 2018. "Stabilising the Euro Area through unemployment benefits re-insurance scheme," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1497, OECD Publishing.
    4. Ábrahám, Árpád & Brogueira de Sousa, João & Marimon, Ramon & Mayr, Lukas, 2023. "On the design of a European Unemployment Insurance System," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    5. Alexander Karaivanov & Robert M. Townsend, 2014. "Dynamic Financial Constraints: Distinguishing Mechanism Design From Exogenously Incomplete Regimes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(3), pages 887-959, May.
    6. Nathaniel G Arnold & Bergljot B Barkbu & H. Elif Ture & Hou Wang & Jiaxiong Yao, 2018. "A Central Fiscal Stabilization Capacity for the Euro Area," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 18/03, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Mr. Nathaniel G Arnold & Ms. Bergljot B Barkbu & H. Elif Ture & Hou Wang & Jiaxiong Yao, 2018. "A Central Fiscal Stabilization Capacity for the Euro Area," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2018/003, International Monetary Fund.
    8. László Andor, 2016. "Towards shared unemployment insurance in the euro area," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-15, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Beetsma, Roel & Cimadomo, Jacopo & van Spronsen, Josha, 2024. "One scheme fits all: A central fiscal capacity for the EMU targeting eurozone, national and regional shocks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    2. Cimadomo, Jacopo & Gordo Mora, Esther & Palazzo, Alessandra Anna, 2022. "Enhancing private and public risk sharing: lessons from the literature and reflections on the COVID-19 crisis," Occasional Paper Series 306, European Central Bank.
    3. Roel Beetsma & Simone Cima & Jacopo Cimadomo, 2021. "Fiscal Transfers without Moral Hazard?," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 17(3), pages 95-153, September.
    4. Francesco Saraceno, 2021. "Europe After COVID-19: A New Role for German Leadership?," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 56(2), pages 65-69, March.
    5. Maria Coelho, 2019. "Fiscal Stimulus in a Monetary Union: Evidence from Eurozone Regions," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 67(3), pages 573-617, September.
    6. Nicoletta Batini & Francesco Lamperti & Andrea Roventini, 2020. "Reducing risk while sharing it: a fiscal recipe for the EU at the time of COVID-19," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-04090084, HAL.
    7. Jean Pisani-Ferry, 2018. "Euro area reform: An anatomy of the debate," SciencePo Working papers hal-03391908, HAL.
    8. European Fiscal Board (EFB), 2020. "2020 annual report of the European Fiscal Board," Annual reports 2020, European Fiscal Board.
    9. Massimo Amato & Everardo Belloni & Paolo Falbo & Lucio Gobbi, 2021. "Europe, public debts, and safe assets: the scope for a European Debt Agency," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(3), pages 823-861, October.
    10. Sascha Buetzer, 2022. "Advancing the Monetary Policy Toolkit through Outright Transfers," IMF Working Papers 2022/087, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Jean Pisani-Ferry, 2018. "Euro area reform: An anatomy of the debate," Post-Print hal-03391908, HAL.
    12. Vítor Constâncio, 2020. "The Return of Fiscal Policy and the Euro Area Fiscal Rule," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 62(3), pages 358-372, September.
    13. Helge Berger & Giovanni Dell’Ariccia & Maurice Obstfeld, 2019. "Revisiting the Economic Case for Fiscal Union in the Euro Area," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 67(3), pages 657-683, September.
    14. Beetsma, Roel & Burgoon, Brian & Nicoli, Francesco, 2023. "Is european attachment sufficiently strong to support an EU fiscal capacity: Evidence from a conjoint experiment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Kaufmann, Christoph & Attinasi, Maria Grazia & Hauptmeier, Sebastian, 2023. "Macroeconomic stabilisation properties of a euro area unemployment insurance scheme," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    16. Lucas Guttenberg & Johannes Hemker & Sander Tordoir, 2021. "Alles wird anders — Wie die Pandemie die EU-Finanzarchitektur verändert," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 101(2), pages 90-94, February.
    17. Golosov, M. & Tsyvinski, A. & Werquin, N., 2016. "Recursive Contracts and Endogenously Incomplete Markets," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 725-841, Elsevier.
    18. Philipp Heimberger & Andreas Lichtenberger, 2023. "RRF 2.0: A Permanent EU Investment Fund in the Context of the Energy Crisis, Climate Change and EU Fiscal Rules," wiiw Policy Notes 63, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    19. Bofinger, Peter & Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Schnabel, Isabel & Wieland, Volker, 2018. "Vor wichtigen wirtschaftspolitischen Weichenstellungen. Jahresgutachten 2018/19 [Setting the Right Course for Economic Policy. Annual Report 2018/19]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201819, February.
    20. Karaivanov, Alexander K. & Martin, Fernando M., 2018. "Markov-perfect risk sharing, moral hazard and limited commitment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 1-23.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    unemployment insurance; risk sharing; reinsurance; euro area; fiscal policy; mechanism design; limited commitment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings
    • F32 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Current Account Adjustment; Short-term Capital Movements

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:bis:biswps:1180. 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: Martin Fessler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bisssch.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.