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New Research on Race and Unemployment Insurance

Paper Session

Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM (CST)

Grand Hyatt, Lone Star Ballroom Salon C
Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Alex Bell, University of California-Los Angeles

Race, Ethnicity, and Measurement Error

Bruce D. Meyer
,
University of Chicago, AEI and NBER
Nikolas Mittag
,
CERGE-EI
Derek Wu
,
University of Virginia

Abstract

Large literatures depend on accurate social insurance and means-tested transfer receipt by race and ethnicity. One set of studies emphasizes lower receipt of transfers by Black or Hispanic individuals suggesting that state laws or their administration has led to disparate access to these programs. A second group of papers examines whether Black or Hispanic individuals are overrepresented among program recipients, focusing mostly on means-tested transfers. A finding in one of the papers is that higher program receipt can mostly be explained by income and employment patterns. Other papers have emphasized racial and ethnic differences in measures of poverty and material well-being. For such analyses it is not only important that surveys capture resources and program receipt well overall, but also that survey accuracy does not vary with race and ethnicity. If race or ethnicity predict survey error, then these analyses confound real differences with differences in survey error. A more recent set of papers examines the accuracy of reporting of transfer receipt in major Census Bureau surveys, including the American Community Survey (ACS), the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC), and the Survey of income and Program Participation (SIPP). This literature has found a pronounced tendency of Blacks and Hispanics to underreport receipt of SNAP, TANF and Unemployment Insurance. The differences in reporting by race and ethnicity lead the surveys to severely understate differences in receipt rates by minorities compared to whites. We will examine the reporting of SNAP, OASDI, UI, Housing Benefits, SSI and TANF in the CPS ASEC and the SIPP using linked data that are part an ongoing as well as proposed new Census Bureau project. The aim will be to both document the bias in reporting and then provide methods that could better isolate actual differences from differences in reporting.

The Role of State Policy in Reducing Disparities in Unemployment Insurance Recipiency

Eliza Forsythe
,
University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

Many unemployed individuals are unaware they may be eligible for Unemployment Insurance (UI), leading to low take-up among eligible individuals. To address this, some states have adopted policies by which employers must notify separating workers about UI eligibility. Using variation across states and the precise timing of policy adoption, I estimate the impact of separation notice requirements on UI recipiency, and investigate whether such policies may play a role in narrowing UI recipiency gaps across racial and ethnic groups.

Gender, Race, and Denied Claims for Unemployment Insurance: The Role of the Employer

Stephen Woodbury
,
Michigan State University
Marta Lachowska
,
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Abstract

Are female, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian claimants for unemployment insurance (UI) more likely than white non-Hispanic claimants to see their claims disputed by an employer?2 And are these UI claimants ultimately more likely to have their UI claims denied, either by the UI agency or following a dispute? We address these questions by examining UI administrative wage and claim records from Washington state during 2005:Q1–2013:Q4. Overall, female claimants in the sample were statistically significantly more likely than males to have their claims disputed or denied; however, once we control for differences in observable characteristics of females’ claims, we find they were less likely to be disputed or denied than males’ claims in the sample. In particular, the findings suggest that females and males sort to employers with different propensities to dispute claims. Differences in denials and disputes by race/ethnicity are more difficult to characterize because they are divergent. Hispanic claimants were less likely than white non-Hispanics to have their claims disputed or denied; however, after accounting for observable characteristics of those claims, the differences were not statistically significant. Black, Asian, and American Indian claimants were more likely than White non-Hispanics to have their claims disputed or denied, in some cases after controlling for observables.

Disparities in Access to Unemployment Insurance During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from U.S. and California Claims Data

Alex Bell
,
University of California-Los Angeles
TJ Hedin
,
University of California-Los Angeles
Roozbeh Moghadam
,
University of California-Davis
Geoffrey Schnorr
,
University of California-Los Angeles
Till von Wachter
,
University of California-Los Angeles

Abstract

To what extent did jobless Americans benefit from unemployment insurance (UI) during the COVID-19 pandemic? This paper documents geographic disparities in access to UI during 2020. We leverage aggregated and individual-level UI claims data to perform an integrated analysis across four measures of access to UI. In addition to the traditional UI recipiency rate, we construct rates of application among the unemployed, rates of first payment among applicants, and exhaustion rates among paid claimants. Through correlations across California counties and across states, we show that areas with more disadvantaged residents had less access to UI during the pandemic. While these disparities are large in magnitude, cross-state analysis suggests that policy can play a salient role in mitigating these disparities.

Discussant(s)
Maxim Massenkoff
,
Naval Postgraduate School
Michael A. Navarrete
,
University of Maryland
JEL Classifications
  • J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor
  • H4 - Publicly Provided Goods