POTENTIAL UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT DURATION AND SPELL LENGTH - LESSONS FROM A QUASI-EXPERIMENT IN AUSTRIA

The paper studies the effect of potential unemployment benefit duratio n on the length of unemployment spells in Austria. It takes advantage of a quasi-experimental situation, where potential benefit duration wa s extended in 1988 for elderly workers living in specific regions of t he country. The empirical analysis shows that men react significantly to benefit duration whereas women generally do not. The quantitative i mpact is smaller than in comparable studies for the US and Germany. Fu rthermore, the impact of extended benefit duration is differentiated f or short and long spells. Whereas for long spells higher impacts for m en as well as for women are found, no unemployment-prolonging effects for short spells could be detected.