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We examine the relationship between unemployment insurance generosity and reported intimate partner violence in the U.S. by leveraging the staggered adoption of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which increased unemployment insurance payments by $600 per week in 2020. Using detailed nationwide police report data, we find that states that implemented this program reported 9% more cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) than states which had not yet implemented the program, driven primarily by increases in aggravated assault, intimidation, and sexual assault. This is consistent with prior evidence on changes in government transfers and IPV. These results are not explained by local differences in unemployment, sheltering in place, economic impact payments, COVID-19 case rates, or temperature. We also find a decrease in total reported IPV against men, but more serious offenses increase.

Unemployment insurance provides temporary cash benefits to eligible unemployed workers. Benefits are sometimes extended by discretion during economic slumps. In a model that features temporary benefits and sequential job opportunities, a worker’s reservation wages are studied when policymakers can make discretionary extensions to benefits. A worker’s optimal labor-supply choice is characterized by a sequence of reservation wages that increases with weeks of remaining benefits. The possibility of an extension raises the entire sequence of reservation wages, meaning a worker is more selective when accepting job offers throughout their spell of unemployment. The welfare consequences of misperceiving the probability and length of an extension are investigated. Properties of the model can help policymakers interpret data on reservation wages, which may be important if extended benefits are used more often in response to economic slumps, virus pandemics, extreme heat, and natural disasters.

The digital transition shapes work in numerous ways. For instance, by affecting employment structures. To ensure that the digital transition results in better employment opportunities in terms of socio‐economic status, labour markets have to be guided appropriately. The European Pillar of Social Rights can be the political framework to foster access to employment and tackle inequalities that result from the digital transition. Current research primarily examines scenarios of occupational upgrading and employment polarisation. In the empirical literature, there is no consensus on which of these developments prevail. Findings vary between countries and across different study periods. Accordingly, this article provides a theoretical explanation for the conditions under which occupational upgrading and employment polarisation become more likely. Further, this article examines how the use of information and communication technology (ICT) capital in the production of goods and services affects the socio‐economic status of individuals and, more importantly, whether unemployment benefits moderate this effect. Methodologically, the article uses multilevel maximum likelihood regression models with an empirical focus on 12 European countries and 19 industries. The analysis is based on data from the European Labour Force Survey (EU‐LFS), the European Union Level Analysis of Capital, Labour, Energy, Materials, and Service Inputs (EU‐KLEMS) research project, and the Comparative Welfare Entitlements Project (CWEP). The results of the article indicate that generous unemployment benefits are associated with occupational upgrading. This implies that educational and vocational labour market policies need to be developed to prevent the under‐skilled from being left behind and to enable these groups to benefit from the digital transition. Consequently, it is not only the extent to which work involves routine tasks or the skills of workers that determine how technological change affects employment, but also social rights shape employment through unemployment benefits.

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with reduced work capacity, but there is limited knowledge about MS patients’ sources of income. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to elucidate MS patients’ earnings and social benefits compared to those of the general population. Methods: From nationwide registers of all residents in Sweden aged 21–64 years in 2010 (n=5,291,764), those with an MS diagnosis (n=13,979) were compared to a propensity score matched reference group (n=69,895). Descriptive statistics and regression models were used to estimate the percentage difference between the MS patients and the matched references regarding the following annual incomes: earnings, disability pension, sickness absence, disability allowance, unemployment compensation and social assistance. Results: Both MS patients and the matched references received most of their income from earnings followed by disability pension and sickness absence. MS patients that were diagnosed in 2010 had 15% lower earnings than the matched references, while MS patients diagnosed before 2005 had 38% lower earnings. Corresponding figures regarding summed social benefits were 33% and 130% higher for MS patients, respectively. Conclusion: The results indicate that MS patients are overrepresented, in relative and absolute terms, regarding health-related benefits and have lower levels of earnings. However, the redistributing welfare systems appear to financially compensate the MS patients considerably.

A crucial function of wealth is to protect individuals from the consequences of adverse life events. However, sometimes wealth also implies additional financial risks. In addition to the insurance function of homeownership (the most common form of wealth), we therefore also examine financial squeezes that reflect the indebtedness and social embeddedness of homeowners and limit their options for dealing with social risks. A third hypothesis expects a trade‐off between social protection and homeownership. Taking the example of unemployment, we examine the effects of short‐term unemployment on the perceived financial situation of households based on data derived from EU‐SILC for 27 European countries. It can be shown that debt‐free homeownership reduces financial stress in the case of unemployment compared to tenants and indebted owners. A debt‐free home thus offers an additional buffer and insurance against the financial consequences of unemployment. However, indebted homeowners are particularly hard hit by unemployment because they have to use all their financial resources to pay off their mortgages. Finally, we did not find a trade‐off but a cumulation of advantages due to homeownership and generous unemployment benefits in countries with high net replacement rates.

Although the role of education, training, and life‐long learning has become widely recognised in EU social policy, not all EU citizens have had the opportunity to maintain or acquire the skills necessary for full participation in society and success in the labour market. This article examines interventions specifically designed to support vulnerable unemployed individuals for (re)entering and succeeding in the labour market. It presents a qualitative, case‐specific study of training programmes implemented by a local unit of the Public Employment Service (PES) in a Southern European country. Portugal serves as a compelling case for examining how and why the effort to equip under‐skilled and underqualified citizens with (new) skills remains challenging. Our theoretical framework builds on historical institutionalism to identify the enduring limitations of Portuguese active labour market policies, as well as other institutional and actor‐related constraints that hinder unemployed individuals from navigating the challenges of an increasingly complex and diverse labour market. To explore these dynamics empirically, we conducted a thematic analysis of semi‐structured interviews with key stakeholders—including PES staff, training providers, and unemployed participants—focusing on their perceptions, experiences, and interpretations of training programmes and their implementation. Additionally, we used supplementary sources such as official documents related to training and other labour market policies, as well as relevant statistical data, to contextualize and triangulate our findings. The findings demonstrate that institutional weaknesses, combined with the shortcomings of training programmes, fail to accommodate the specific needs and conditions of vulnerable unemployed individuals, leaving them without the skills necessary to secure stable employment and to respond effectively to the challenges posed by the ecological and digital transitions.

This paper discusses the impact of unemployment compensation on the employment and wages of regular and non-regular labor in a dual-labor market. The model in this paper assumes an effective demand constraint and an imperfectly competitive market. The results obtained are as follows. An increase in unemployment compensation increases the wages of regular labor to maintain its productivity. However, this temporarily decreases the employment of regular labor, so that the productivity and wages of non-regular labor decrease. The result is an increase in the relative wage rate of regular labor and the relative amount of non-regular labor employed. This result is independent of any economic regime. In terms of the impact on employment volume, the existence of two regimes, one wage-driven and one profit-driven, is confirmed. However, the effect on employment is weaker if unemployment compensation is financed by taxing profits.

The extreme labor market weakness during and after the Great Recession led to the passage of extensive federal legislation related to unemployment compensation. In this paper, we summarize that legislation and some of the research related to it. Although our particular focus is on the very long potential durations of benefits (up to 99 weeks) initially implemented in 2008–2009, we also look at a variety of other initiatives. Most of the research we review comes from the United States. But we also provide a brief look at the vast European literature that addresses many of the same policy issues.

This paper examines the potential contribution of unemployment hysteresis theories to the understanding of the Belgian labor market. It estimates models of wage determination using aggregate and firm-level panel data. Two main conclusions emerge: (i) the long-term unemployed do not exert a negative impact on wages; and (ii) there is some evidence that the incumbent workers, the \"insiders,\" exercise market power in wage determination, taking greater account of their own interests than those of the unemployed \"outsiders.\" In addition, it is argued that the automatic indexation of wages to prices in Belgium can cause a downward rigidity in real wages, given the multi-tier real wage bargaining process. Recent initiatives, including the introduction of a competitiveness norm for indexation, and labor market programs aimed at the long-term unemployed and the young, such as the \"plan d'accompagnement\" and the \"plan d'embauche des jeunes,\" are appropriate in view of the existence of insider power in wage determination.

Spain has the most serious and persistent unemployment problem in Europe, with an unemployment rate that reached 24.6 percent in early 1994. This paper explores the characteristics of this unemployment problem, its causes, and provides a brief discussion of recent labor market reform measures and their likely impact. A demographic shift in recent years has produced a large rise in female labor force participation and a decrease in agricultural jobs to which the economy has been unable to adjust. The effects of generous unemployment benefits and the large underground economy may explain 6-12 percentage points of the resulting unemployment, but the remainder must be explained by failures and rigidities in the labor market. The paper presents econometric evidence that unemployment displays hysteresis, and that wages are not responsive to changes in the unemployment rate. This evidence supports the claim that insider-outsider factors and rigidities in the legal structure of the labor market are responsible for much of the high unemployment rate. Recent reforms have improved the functioning of the labor market, but they are unlikely to be sufficient to reduce unemployment to single digit rates without further action.