Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/283424 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
WWZ Working Paper No. 08/2023
Publisher: 
University of Basel, Center of Business and Economics (WWZ), Basel
Abstract: 
The generosity of social insurance coverage often increases with the beneficiary's age and their contribution time to social security, but existing policies vary considerably. We study the differentiation of unemployment insurance (UI) generosity by evaluating how the insurance-incentive trade-off varies with age and contribution time. We exploit numerous discontinuities in potential benefit duration in Germany. Contribution time in the last three years carries information on job search efforts, as it is associated with lower moral hazard responses and fiscal externality. We find no significant response heterogeneity in age or longer contribution time horizons. Contrasting these gradients with an approximated insurance value for four UI regimes, we document that steepening the potential benefit duration schedule in contribution time and flattening it in age would have increased welfare.
Subjects: 
Unemployment insurance
response heterogeneity
policy differentiation
JEL: 
J08
J64
J65
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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