M. Corak et Srg. Jones, THE PERSISTENCE OF UNEMPLOYMENT - HOW IMPORTANT WERE REGIONAL EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT-INSURANCE BENEFITS, Canadian journal of economics, 28(3), 1995, pp. 555-567
This paper assesses the contribution of regionally extended unemployme
nt insurance benefits to the persistence of the Canadian unemployment
rate during the 1980s. We use administrative data associated with the
operation of the UI program to produce counts of the number of UI clai
mants by benefit phase. The data suggest that the change in the number
of unemployed individuals above the level prevailing in 1981 is much
larger than the change in the number of regionally extended benefit re
cipients. We also examine the time-series properties of the number of
UI claimants by benefit phase, and find that the number of regionally
extended recipients is not unusually persistent. Indeed, this series d
isplays less persistence than the number of claimants in other benefit
phases. We recognize that the increase in potential benefit duration
caused by regionally extended benefits may lengthen the time claimants
spend in the initial and labour force extended benefit phases, but we
conclude that this indirect channel would have to be particularly str
ong to prevent one from concluding that the number of regionally exten
ded benefit recipients was of relatively little importance in explaini
ng the increased level and persistence of the Canadian unemployment ra
te during the 1980s.