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Title: The Effects of Unemployment Compensation on the Unemployment of Youths
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Cameron, A. Colin
Gritz, R. Mark
MaCurdy, Thomas E.
The Effects of Unemployment Compensation on the Unemployment of Youths
NLS Discussion Paper No. 92-4, Washington DC: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1989.
Also: http://stats.bls.gov/ore/abstract/nl/nl890010.htm
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): Earnings; Employment, Youth; Gender Differences; Job Patterns; Unemployment; Unemployment Insurance; Unemployment, Youth; Wages; Work History

This report examines the role of unemployment insurance (UI) policies on the amount of unemployment that youth experience between jobs. Specifically, the analysis focuses on determining how the weekly benefit amounts and the weeks of eligibility offered by UI programs influence three aspects of nonemployment activities: (1) total length of time spent in nonemployment; (2) fraction of this time reported as unemployment; and (3) likelihood that an individual collects UI during a nonemployment episode. Two intermediate goals of this research included: (1) the computation of a comprehensive summary of the weekly work and earnings experiences of youth; and (2) an assessment of the extent to which youth are eligible for UI and the degree to which they draw on UI entitlements. The aim was to identify two sets of patterns, those describing differences across demographic characteristics and those capturing changes over the period 1979-1984. Data from the NLSY are utilized in these analyses. The empirical results for men presented in this study indicate that an individual who collects UI typically experiences a longer spell of nonemployment, at least up to the exhaustion of UI benefits, and reports a larger fraction of this spell as unemployment than a nonrecipient. The results show slight increases in recipiency and in the fraction of a nonemployment spell listed as unemployment; however, this rise in weekly benefits has essentially no effect on either the length of nonemployment spells or on the number of weeks of unemployment, irrespective of whether one considers the population at large or only the population of UI recipients. Other findings are summarized for young men and are found to also apply for young women with only two exceptions. First, while female UI recipients experience moreunemployment than nonrecipients at least up to the point of benefit exhaustion, there is some ambiguity as to whether a similar relationship exists for women when comparing le ngths of nonemployment spells. Second, the weekly benefit amount is not a factor at all in influencing women's experiences. In contrast to men, changes in weekly benefits have no effect on the fraction of a nonemployment spell reported as unemployment, nor do they affect the likelihood that a woman collects UI benefits. In general, the findings of this report suggest that features of UI programs that change the size of weekly benefit amounts are not likely to affect unemployment, whereas features that alter the amount of weeks of eligibility are likely to shift unemployment for those individuals who experience the longer durations.
Bibliography Citation
Cameron, A. Colin, R. Mark Gritz and Thomas E. MaCurdy. "The Effects of Unemployment Compensation on the Unemployment of Youths." NLS Discussion Paper No. 92-4, Washington DC: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1989.