US – Extension of unemployment benefits has no significant effect on the unemployment rate research finds

Gabriel Chodorow-Reich of Harvard University and Loukas Karabarbounis of the University of Chicago find that the extension of unemployment benefits from 26 to 99 weeks during the Great Recession increased the unemployment rate by at most 0.3 percentage point. In addition, they find little effect of jobless benefit extensions on state-level macroeconomic variables such as vacancies and wages. The authors conclude that concerns about large negative macroeconomic effects of unemployment insurance are not warranted.

Source: Hutchins Roundup: Unemployment benefits, total factor productivity, and more | Brookings Institution