2013-09-01

Unemployment Insurance across U.S. States and Times : An Empirical Analysis

Stéphane Auray

There exists a large literature examining the effects of unemployment benefits on economic outcomes. The U.S. economy, with its large number of states, provides a natural laboratory to analyze the impact of unemployment benefits. There are many U.S. states, each with unique economic outcomes and policies. For example, in January 2013, the unemployment rate in North Dakota was 3.3%, while it was 9.8% in California. Moreover, both the generosity and administration of the Unemployment Insurance (hereafter UI) vary across U.S. states. We propose to use data on the UI systems in each state to provide a comprehensive analysis of UI in the U.S. across states and time.