Abstract:
Existing research documents that more generous unemployment insurance (UI) delays job finding with limited effects on job match quality. Using employer-employee matched data from Washington state and a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, this paper exploits the eligibility threshold to examine how UI receipt impacts job search for marginally attached workers who earn lower incomes. We find that UI access only minimally delays re-employment, but improvements in job match quality lead to longer hours and higher earnings. When scaled by our first-stage, we estimate UI receipt increases cumulative hours worked by approximately 14 full-time weeks and earnings by $14,000 in the two years following job loss. Earnings effects are driven by longer hours at one’s next employer in the medium-run and higher hourly wages in the longer-run. Individuals eligible for UI work for significantly fewer firms after job loss. Our calculations suggest lowering the eligibility threshold is among the most effective UI policy changes because it supports particularly low-income workers and its cost is partially offset by higher earnings and taxes upon re-employment.
Abstract:
We use LinkedIn public profile data to investigate the influence of vertical connections — the relationships between senior and junior workers who are connected only through sharing the same alma mater — on labor-market outcomes. Specifically, we rely on an event-study design and an exposure framework to examine the extent to which vertical connections affect hirings and promotions, respectively. Taking the law sector as a case study, we find that having a senior worker who shares the same alma mater as a junior worker not only increases the junior worker’s chances to be hired by the firm , particularly for graduates of non-top-20 schools, but also makes the junior workers more likely to be internally promoted.