Losing Prospective Entitlement to Unemployment Benefits. Impact on Educational Attainment

Arbeitspapier

Providing income support to unemployed education-leavers reduces the returns to investments in education because it makes the consequences of unemployment less severe. We evaluate a two-part policy reform in Belgium to study whether conditioning the prospective entitlement to unemployment benefits for education-leavers on age or schooling attainment can affect educational achievements. The results show that the prospect of financial loss in case of unemployment can significantly raise degree completion and reduce dropout in higher education, but not in high school. We argue that the higher prevalence of behavioral biases among lower educated and younger students could explain these contrasting findings.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 9852

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; National Government Expenditures and Education ; Analysis of Education ; Returns to Education ; Education: Government Policy ; Labor Economics Policies ; Demographic Economics: Public Policy ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings ; Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies: Public Policy
• Subject: unemployment insurance ; conditionality ; degree completion ; school dropout ; behavioural biases

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Cockx, Bart ; Declercq, Koen ; Dejemeppe, Muriel
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/263782
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET