Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/77717 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 4324
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We study asset-tested unemployment insurance in an incomplete markets model with moral hazard during job search. Asset testing has two counteracting effects on welfare. On the one hand, it improves consumption insurance by introducing state contingent transfers to agents most in need. On the other hand, it worsens the moral hazard problem, since workers have a reduced incentive to save and fewer private resources are used for consumption smoothing during unemployment. Our results show that in a realistically calibrated model of the U.S. economy the two effects nearly offset each other—the optimal rate of asset-testing is approximately zero. This finding is robust to several alternative specifications of the model, including a case with heterogeneous time-discount factors. We conclude that the current U.S. unemployment insurance system is approximately optimal.
Subjects: 
unemployment insurance
asset-testing
incomplete markets
consumption and saving
JEL: 
E21
E24
J65
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.