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  5. Employers and Unemployment Insurance Take-Up

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Employers and Unemployment Insurance Take-Up

  • Marta Lachowska
  • Isaac Sorkin
  • Stephen A. Woodbury
American Economic Review (Forthcoming)

Abstract

We quantify the employer’s role in unemployment insurance (UI) take-up. Employer effects on claiming and appeals are substantial, and those effects are negatively correlated, consistent with appeals deterring claims. Low-wage workers are less likely to claim and more likely to have their claims appealed than median-wage workers. Employer effects help explain these income gradients, so equalizing employer effects on claiming would increase the progressivity of UI. Finally, the main source of targeting error in UI is that eligible workers do not claim.

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