Unemployment Insurance and Firm Size.
Abstract
State unemployment insurance (UI) systems impose taxes on employers that are used to finance benefit payments to laid-off workers. UI taxes are experience rated, but only imperfectly. Some firms are therefore able to avoid paying for the benefits their laid-off employees receive. In fact, some groups of firms may systematically be subsidized by others, by persistently paying less in taxes than their former employees collect in benefits. The research discussed here has two primary goals. The first is to investigate the extent of cross-subsidization in present UI systems among firms of different size. The second goal is to estimate how small and large firms would be affected by various proposed reforms of these systems. The empirical work is based on administrative records of UI systems in three states-California, Delaware, and Texas. The statistical data were used to measure the subsidy (UI) benefits minus taxes) for firms of different size and to estimate how the subsidy would change if various UI parameters were changed. Keywords: tables(data). (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA163233
Entities
People
- Frank P. R. Brechling
- Louis S. Jacobson
- Marianne Bowes
Organizations
- Center for Naval Analyses