Positive Externalities of Social Insurance: Unemployment Insurance and Consumer Credit /
This paper studies the impact of unemployment insurance (UI) on consumer credit markets. Exploiting heterogeneity in UI generosity across U.S. states and over time, we find that UI helps the unemployed avoid defaulting on their mortgage debt. We estimate that UI expansions during the Great Recession...
Gespeichert in:
- Weitere Titel:
- Positive Externalities of Social Insurance
- 1. Verfasser:
- Körperschaft:
- Weitere Verfasser:
- ,
- Format:
- Elektronisch E-Book
- Sprache:
- Englisch
- Veröffentlicht:
-
Cambridge, Mass.
National Bureau of Economic Research
2014.
- Zusammenfassung:
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This paper studies the impact of unemployment insurance (UI) on consumer credit markets. Exploiting heterogeneity in UI generosity across U.S. states and over time, we find that UI helps the unemployed avoid defaulting on their mortgage debt. We estimate that UI expansions during the Great Recession prevented about 1.4 million foreclosures. Lenders respond to this decline in default risk by expanding credit access and reducing interest rates for low-income households at risk of being laid off. Our findings call attention to two benefits of unemployment insurance not previously highlighted: reducing deadweight losses from loan default and expanding access to credit.
- Umfang:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Anmerkungen:
- July 2014.
- Schlagworte: