Estimating the Disparate Cumulative Impact of the Pandemic in Administrative Unemployment Insurance Data
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 112,
May 2022
(pp. 78-84)
Abstract
To better measure the full extent of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on workers and the labor market, this paper estimates three measures of the cumulative impact of the pandemic on workers across intensive and extensive margins using longitudinal administrative unemployment insurance (UI) data from California. During the first year of the crisis, 30 percent of the labor force filed a UI claim, over 50 percent of recipients spent more than 6 months on the program, and the mean work time lost was 13 weeks. Less advantaged workers and counties saw much higher rates of claiming and long-term unemployment.Citation
Bell, Alex, T. J. Hedin, Peter Mannino, Roozbeh Moghadam, Carl Romer, Geoffrey C. Schnorr, and Till von Wachter. 2022. "Estimating the Disparate Cumulative Impact of the Pandemic in Administrative Unemployment Insurance Data." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 112: 78-84. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20221008Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
- I12 Health Behavior
- J22 Time Allocation and Labor Supply
- J64 Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
- J65 Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics