Publication: Unemployment Insurance: Efficiency Effects and Lessons for Developing Countries
Date
2004-04
ISSN
Published
2004-04
Author(s)
Vodopivec, Milan
Abstract
Unemployment insurance (UI) is the most
common public income support program for the unemployed in
developed countries.1 In these countries, it typically
offers good protection: it covers the majority of employed
persons, irrespective of occupation or industry, and
provides adequate smoothening of consumption patterns. For
example, studies on the U.S. find that the welfare of
benefit recipient households is on average only 3-8 percent
lower than the welfare of otherwise identical households,
and that in the absence of unemployment insurance, average
consumption expenditures would fall by about 20 percent. In
the last decade, UI programs have been introduced in
transition countries, and their use in developing countries
is on the rise as well.
Citation
“Vodopivec, Milan. 2004. Unemployment Insurance: Efficiency Effects and Lessons for Developing Countries. World Bank Employment Policy Primer; No. 5. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/f6d1629c-3f6b-588c-a660-8fbf81787835 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”