The $600 unemployment bonuses did not lead to people working less, Yale study finds

[flamingdem]

https://www.businessinsider.com/600-unemployment-bonus-payments-dont-cause-less-work-yale-2020-7?utm_source=reddit.com

A report by economists at Yale University did not find any evidence that the $600 weekly jobless benefits authorized by Congress in March in response to the COVID-19 outbreak reduced employment in the US.

Findings suggest that in the aggregate, the expanded benefits "neither encouraged layoffs during the pandemic's onset nor deterred people from returning to work once businesses began reopening. "

"Workers facing larger expansions in unemployment insurance benefits have returned to their previous jobs over time at similar rates as others," the economists said. "We find no evidence that more generous benefits disincentivize work either at the onset of the expansion or as firms looked to return to business over time. In future research, it will be important to assess whether the same results hold when states move to reopen."

The $600 per week unemployment benefits that millions of Americans have been receiving under the CARES Act expire at the end of July. This comes as members of the Trump administration have been critical of these benefits to unemployed Americans, claiming they disincentivize people returning to work.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow in June told CNN that the measure was a "disincentive" to work, adding that "we're paying people not to work."

On the contrary, the study didn't find any evidence that recipients of more generous benefits were less likely to return to work. The researchers concluded that workers who received larger increases in their unemployment benefits relative to their wages did not experience greater declines in employment after the CARES Act was enacted.

The researchers used weekly data from Homebase, which is a company that provides time-sheet software and scheduling to small businesses across the U.S.

"The data do not show a relationship between benefit generosity and employment paths after the CARES Act, which could be due to the collapse of labor demand during the COVID-19 crisis," said Joseph Altonji, the Thomas DeWitt Cuyler Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and a co-author of the report.

[underpants]

1. I really don't think that Kudlow or the others meant this as an economic analysis

They meant it as “lazy good for nothing black people are taking your money”. That simple.

[appalachiablue]

2. K /R Thanks for posting on this new report.

[crickets]

3. Puts paid to your excuses, Mitch. Sociopath. nt