Job Displacement Insurance and (the Lack of) Consumption-Smoothing
Keyword(s):
Lump Sum
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We study the spending profile of workers who experience both a positive transitory income shock (lump-sum severance pay) and a negative permanent income shock (layoff). Using de-identified expenditure and employment data from Brazil, we show that workers increase spending at layoff by 35 percent despite experiencing a 14 percent long-term loss. We find high sensitivity of spending to cash-on-hand across consumption categories and for several sources of variation, including predictable income drops. A model with present-biased workers can rationalize our findings, and highlights the importance of the timing of benefit disbursement for the consumption-smoothing gains of job displacement insurance policies. (JEL D12, G51, J65, J63, O12)
2016 ◽
Vol 4
(48)
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pp. 7845-7851
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2016 ◽
Vol 23
(2)
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pp. 124-131
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1985 ◽
Vol 27
(6)
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pp. 729-734
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2018 ◽
Vol 17
(2)
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pp. 783-810
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