US unemployment insurance replacement rates during the pandemic
By P. Ganong, P. Noel, Joseph Vavra. Journal of Public Economics, 2020
184 citations recorded by the source corpus.
We use micro data on earnings together with the details of each state's unemployment insurance (UI) system to compute the distribution of UI benefits after the uniform $600 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) supplement implemented by the CARES Act. We find that between April and July 2020, 76% of workers eligible for regular Unemployment Compensation have statutory replacement rates above 100%, meaning that they are eligible for benefits which exceed lost wages. The median statutory replacement rate is 145%. We also compute comprehensive replacement rates, which account for employer provided non-wage compensation and differential tax treatment of labor income and UI. 69% of UI-eligible unemployed have comprehensive replacement rates above 100% and the median comprehensive replacement rate is 134%. The presence of the FPUC has important implications for the incidence of the recession and reverses income patterns which would have otherwise arisen across income levels, occupations, and industries.
Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, General Health Professions
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/919aa4fc95c8053b73bdcf3495ca7d4db14694f7
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Economics and Econometrics
- Steven J. Davis
- Nicholas Bloom
- Scott R. Baker
- Joseph Vavra
- P. Ganong
- P. Noel
- Jose Maria Barrero
- Marianne Bertrand
In General Health Professions
- P. Ganong
- P. Noel
- Alexander W. Bartik
- Marianne Bertrand
- Feng Lin
- Matt Unrath
- Scott R. Baker
- Steven J. Davis
Citations in the corpus
- The Unprecedented Stock Market Reaction to COVID-19 (2020, background): “Ganong, Noel, and Vavra (2020) estimate that the median replacement rate for unemployment benefit recipients is 134% under the CARESAct.”
- Did the paycheck protection program hit the target? (2020, unknown): “…modest employment effects, the program may have prevented firms from closing and this effect could manifest in stronger employment outcomes in the long-run. many workers saw UI replacement rates above their usual salaries due to an additional $600 a week in federal ben-efits ( Ganong et al., 2020 ).”
- Measuring the Labor Market at the Onset of the COVID-19 Crisis (2020, background): “Ganong et al. (2020) document wide variation across states in unemployment insurance replacement rates under CARES, with a low median replacement rate of 129% in Maryland and a high of 177% in New Mexico.”
- Sheltering in place and domestic violence: Evidence from calls for service during COVID-19 (2020, unknown): “The labor market impacts were closely followed by sweeping economic policies directed towards both firms and households (Granja et al., 2020; Ganong et al., 2020).”
- Initial Impacts of the Pandemic on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from Linked Income, Spending, and Savings Data (2020, methodology): “Speci-fically, we simulate how income has likely changed in the first few months of the pandemic using statutory provisions of the CARES Act, information from the CPS, and the unemployment insurance calculator in Ganong, Noel, and Vavra (2020).”
- COVID-19 Is Also a Reallocation Shock (2020, background): “36 Ganong et al. (2020) estimate that, under the CARES Act, the median replacement rate for unemployment benefit recipients is 134 percent.”