Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51861 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5540
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
A significant fraction of the labor force consists of employed workers who are part-time unemployed (underemployed) in the sense that they are unable to work as much as they prefer. This paper develops a search and matching model to study the design of optimal unemployment insurance in an economy with unemployment as well as part-time unemployment. Part-time unemployment provides income insurance and serves as a stepping stone to full-time jobs. Unemployment benefits for part-timers increase the outflow from unemployment to part-time work but reduce the outflow from part-time work to full-time employment. We examine the optimal structure of benefits for unemployed and underemployed workers. The results indicate non-negligible welfare gains associated with time limits for unemployment benefits as well as for part-time benefits. The welfare gains from optimal UI are larger when wages are fixed than when they are flexible.
Subjects: 
job search
part-time unemployment
unemployment insurance
JEL: 
J64
J65
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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