Frontloading the unemployment benefit: An empirical assessment

Arbeitspapier

In November 2005, the Hungarian government frontloaded the unemployment benefit path, while kept constant the total benefit amount that could be collected over the unemployment spell. We estimate the effect of this reform on non-employment duration using an interrupted time series design. We find that non-employment duration fell by 1.5 weeks after November 2005, while reemployment wages and the duration of new jobs remained the same. We show that the decrease in non-employment duration was large enough to make the benefit reform revenue neutral. Our welfare evaluation for this reform is positive: frontloading increased job finding, it made some of the unemployed better off, and did not cost anything to the taxpayers.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-615-5594-66-3
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IEHAS Discussion Papers ; No. MT-DP - 2016/27

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General ; Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
• Subject: unemployment ; declining unemployment benefits ; welfare analysis

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Lindner, Attila ; Reizer, Balázs
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Economics
• (where): Budapest
• (when): 2016

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/190451
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET