Title
Unemployment Insurance and Means-Tested Program Interactions: Evidence from Administrative Data
Upjohn Author ORCID Identifier
Publication Date
4-30-2020
Source
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 12(2): 159-192
Abstract
We study the ways in which unemployment insurance (UI) benefits interact with other elements of the social safety net around job losses. We exploit a cutoff for UI eligibility, based on a workers' highest quarterly earnings in the past year, to generate quasi-experimental variation in UI receipt. We find that UI receipt cuts welfare (TANF) receipt by half among low-earning UI applicants but has no impact on SNAP or Medicaid usage. However, because welfare participation is low in this population, overall crowdout is small. In the quarter following layoff, UI increases total income by 55 percent (including labor earnings and transfers).
DOI
10.1257/pol.20170262
Publisher
American Economic Association
Subject Areas
UNEMPLOYMENT, DISABILITY, and INCOME SUPPORT PROGRAMS; Unemployment insurance
Citation
Leung, Pauline and Christopher O'Leary. 2020. "Unemployment Insurance and Means-Tested Program Interactions: Evidence from Administrative Data." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 12(2): 159-192. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20170262