Title

Spillover Effects Between the Insured and Uninsured Unemployed

Author(s)

Phillip B. Levine Phillip Levine (Princeton University)

Abstract

In this paper, I consider the effect of changing the level of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits on workers who do not receive UI. I hypothesize that a spillover effect between insured and uninsured workers exists so that an increase in the UI benefits, which leads to longer durations of unemployment for insured workers, will lead to a reduction in the duration of unemployment for the uninsured. This prediction is tested using data from several March Current Population Surveys and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. In both samples I find that an increase in UI benefits leads to a reduction in the duration of unemployment for uninsured workers. Furthermore, using several years of state level data, I show that the estimated effect on unemployment for the entire labor force is roughly zero when I allow for the spillover effect.

Creation Date

1991-05

Section URL ID

IRS

Paper Number

283

URL

https://dataspace.princeton.edu/bitstream/88435/dsp01wh246s14w/1/283.pdf

File Function

Jel

H56

Keyword(s)

unemployment insurance, uninsured workers, spillover effect

Suppress

false

Series

1