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Unemployment insurance in transition and developing countries: moral hazard vs. liquidity constraints in Chile

Author

Listed:
  • Sehnbruch, Kirsten
  • Carranza Navarrete, Rafael
  • Contreras Guajardo, Dante
Abstract
One of the most complex policy issues that developing countries will face as a result of the employment crisis caused by the Covid crisis is the question of how they can better protect the unemployed. However, the analysis of unemployment insurance (UI) in developing economies with large informal sectors is in its infancy, with few papers providing solid empirical evidence. This paper therefore makes several contributions: first, it applies Chetty’s 2008 landmark work on UI to a transition economy (Chile) and shows that the moral hazard effects expected by policy makers, who designed the system are minimal, while liquidity effects were entirely neglected. Second, it demonstrates that it is not enough merely to quantify effects such as moral hazard, but to understand their causes as unemployment generated by moral hazard or liquidity constraints has different welfare implications and should therefore result in different policies. By means of an RDD, this paper analyses the Chilean UI system using a large sample of administrative data, which allows for an extremely precise analysis of how the system works, thus providing invaluable empirical lessons for other countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Sehnbruch, Kirsten & Carranza Navarrete, Rafael & Contreras Guajardo, Dante, 2022. "Unemployment insurance in transition and developing countries: moral hazard vs. liquidity constraints in Chile," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115455, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:115455
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/115455/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Card & Raj Chetty & Andrea Weber, 2007. "The Spike at Benefit Exhaustion: Leaving the Unemployment System or Starting a New Job?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 113-118, May.
    2. Peter Fredriksson & Bertil Holmlund, 2006. "Optimal unemployment insurance design: Time limits, monitoring, or workfare?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 13(5), pages 565-585, September.
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    5. Olivier J. Blanchard & Jean Tirole, 2008. "The Joint Design of Unemployment Insurance and Employment Protection: A First Pass," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(1), pages 45-77, March.
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    9. Mário Centeno & Álvaro Novo, 2009. "Reemployment wages and UI liquidity effect: a regression discontinuity approach," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 8(1), pages 45-52, April.
    10. Raj Chetty, 2008. "Moral Hazard versus Liquidity and Optimal Unemployment Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(2), pages 173-234, April.
    11. Martin Feldstein & Daniel Altman, 2007. "Unemployment Insurance Savings Accounts," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 21, pages 35-64, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Orszag, J. Michael & Snower, Dennis J., 2002. "Incapacity benefits and employment policy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 631-641, November.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Chile; Latin America; moral hazard vs. liquidity; unemployment in developing countries; unemployment insurance; welfare systems;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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