Employer Screening and Optimal Unemployment Insurance

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Meier, Mario; Obermeier, Tim
• 署名单位: Deutsche Bundesbank; University of Leicester; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueae095
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 671-711
• 关键词: job search; macroeconomic approach; labor-market; duration; externalities; liquidity; benefits; ranking

摘要

Field experiments show that employers are less likely to consider long-term unemployed job seekers for interviews. We study the implications for optimal unemployment insurance. Based on a structural model of job search and recruitment, estimated with German data, we analyse the optimal two-tier unemployment system. We find that screening makes the optimal initial benefit level 4 percentage points higher and the potential benefit duration seven months longer. Using an extended Baily-Chetty formula, we study the mechanisms through which screening affects the consumption smoothing gain and moral hazard cost of providing unemployment insurance and highlight the role of the externality from endogenous firm behaviour.