Presenter: Hyunwoo Jeong

Location: 368A Heady Hall

Title: The Effect of unemployment insurance (UI) on job search intensity

Abstract: While many studies have analyzed the effect of unemployment spells on job search behavior, little research has examined whether UI benefits affect job search intensity. We apply the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Benefit Accuracy Measurement (BAM) data to investigate how job search intensity, measured as the number of searches in the survey week, responds to the cause of the unemployment spell, recall expectations, UI benefit level, remaining benefits, and prior wage. An Inverse Hyperbolic Sine (IHS) double hurdle model evaluates how these factors affect whether and how intensively to search. We find that as the probability of being recalled to a previous job increases, unemployed individuals tend to search less. More generous unemployment benefits increase the probability of job market participation but reduce the level of search effort.