scholarly journals Quantifying the Benefits of Social Insurance: Unemployment Insurance and Health

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elira Kuka
Keyword(s):  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
Social Insurance

Is Unemployment Insurable? Employers and the Development of Unemployment Insurance

1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabela Mares
Keyword(s):  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Insurance Policies ◽  
Modern Welfare State ◽  
Policy Arenas ◽  
Shed Light

ABSTRACTIn order to shed light on the recent debates that are reinterpreting the role played by organized employers in the development of modern social policy, this paper examines the origin of the system of contributory social insurance during the Weimar period. Contrary to ‘laborist’ accounts of the origin of the modern welfare state that view the working class as the most important protagonist behind the transition from ‘assistance’ to ‘insurance’ policies, this paper argues that employers' dissatisfaction with the means-tested system of unemployment assistance and employers' endorsement of an insurance solution to the risk of unemployment remained the decisive factor leading to the introduction of the insurance system during the Weimar period. Drawing on employers' deliberations and archival material, the paper reconstructs the process of preference formation of German employers. The significance of a sectoral conflict between employers of large and small firms about the organization of the ‘risk pool’ within the system of unemployment insurance is also highlighted. While the existing literature fails to characterize employers' preferences towards social policies and to explain the variation in the degree of employers' support for particular social policies, this paper does so. Firms' preferences towards social policies can be analyzed along three dimensions: ability of social policies to redistribute risks, locus of control within alternative policy arenas and the costs imposed by different social policies.

Choice in Insurance Markets: A Pigouvian Approach to Social Insurance Design

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Hendren ◽  
Camille Landais ◽  
Johannes Spinnewijn
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Selection ◽  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Insurance Markets ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Uncompensated Care ◽  
Regulatory Policies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Insurance Choice

Should choice be offered in social insurance programs? This review presents a conceptual framework that identifies the key forces determining the social value of offering choice. We show that the value of offering choice is higher the larger the variation in individual valuations for extra insurance is, but it gets reduced by both selection on risk and selection on moral hazard. Besides adverse selection, the implementation of choice-based policies is further challenged by the presence of choice frictions or the obligation to offer basic uncompensated care. All these inefficiencies can be seen as externalities that do not rationalize the absence of providing choice per se but point to the need for regulatory policies and suggest the potential value of corrective pricing à la Pigou. Applying this framework to the existing evidence on these forces in the context of unemployment insurance, we find that offering insurance choice can be valuable even in the presence of significant adverse selection. We conclude by showing how this framework can constitute a fruitful guide for further empirical research in different insurance domains. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Economics, Volume 13 is August 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals The Fiscal Cost of Hurricanes: Disaster Aid versus Social Insurance

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyana Deryugina
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Safety Nets ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Government Transfers ◽  
Social Safety Nets ◽  
Disaster Aid

Little is known about the fiscal costs of natural disasters, especially regarding social safety nets that do not specifically target extreme weather events. This paper shows that US hurricanes lead to substantial increases in non-disaster government transfers, such as unemployment insurance and public medical payments, in affected counties in the decade after a hurricane. The present value of this increase significantly exceeds that of direct disaster aid. This implies, among other things, that the fiscal costs of natural disasters have been significantly underestimated and that victims in developed countries are better insured against them than previously thought. (JEL H51, H53, H84, J65, Q54)

Comment: Restoring Class to State Unemployment Insurance

1986 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl J. Cuneo
Keyword(s):  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Internal State ◽  
State Administration ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Salient Points ◽  
State Unemployment ◽  
Recent Tendency ◽  
Point Of Departure

There has been a recent tendency, with deep historical roots in structural-functionalism and elite analyses, to insulate the state from class formations and struggles. Reacting against classical Marxist and neo-Marxist attempts to locate certain features of state policy in the class struggles of capitalist formations, there has been a reversion to “explaining” state policy solely by the “internal dynamics” of state administration and the motives and intentions of their incumbents. Leslie Pal's critique of my work in his article is yet another attempt in this tradition. After critiquing my “narrow” use of “relative autonomy” and “rigid” reliance on “class struggle” to account for the introduction of theEmployment and Social Insurance Actof 1935 and theUnemployment Insurance Actof 1940, he offers an alternative classless “model” which relies heavily on actuarial ideology and federal-provincial relations in the dynamics of internal state administration. In light of his use of my work as a point of departure, I will make only a few salient points. My comments are divided into two parts: theoretical assumptions and the class nature of actuarial ideology.

scholarly journals Quantifying the Benefits of Social Insurance: Unemployment Insurance and Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elira Kuka
Keyword(s):  
Unemployment Insurance ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Health Insurance Coverage ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Unemployment Rates ◽  
Reported Health

While the unemployment insurance (UI) program is one of the largest safety net programs in the United States, research on its benefits is limited. This paper exploits plausibly exogenous changes in state UI laws to empirically estimate whether UI generosity mitigates any of the previously documented negative health effects of job loss. The results show that higher UI generosity increases health insurance coverage and utilization, with stronger effects during periods of high unemployment rates. During such periods, higher UI generosity also leads to improved self-reported health. Finally, I find no effects on risky behaviors or health conditions.

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