Thesis advisor: Andrew Beauchamp / This paper examines the effect of changes in the duration of unemployment insurance on various measures of post-unemployment job quality within the context of Germany after the Hartz reforms. I find a significant positive effect of UI duration on re-employment wage, as well as significant effects for certain demographic groups indicating increased occupational prestige, job satisfaction, and satisfaction with hours of work. I find no significant effect on distance from home to work.
I find that the positive relationship between UI eligibility and unemployment duration is based solely on the unemployment durations of those who exit the labor force after unemployment; I find no evidence of a link between UI eligibility and unemployment duration for those who found jobs at the end of their unemployment spells.
To understand these results, I propose several possible explanations: heterogenous job search behaviors among those with different UI durations, a psychological burden of impending UI exhaustion, a negotiation advantage of a higher reservation wage for those with longer eligibility, or the possibility that my data simply failed to observe a positive relationship between UI duration and unemployment duration. Finally, I present one possible policy response to these findings, aimed at reducing the problem of free riding. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Economics.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_104377 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Davey, Paul C. |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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