Beblavý, Μ., Gros, D. & Maselli, I. (2015) “Reinsurance of National Unemployment Benefit Schemes“, Social welfare policies, CEPS Working Documents, Centre for European Policy Studies, 08 January.
This study is a contribution to the debate around the creation of an unemployment insurance scheme for the EU/euro area by proposing an alternative mechanism to the Europeanisation of national insurance schemes. The authors make the case for a reinsurance mechanism and show that such a system delivers, for a small average contribution, large shock-absorption capacities. At the same time, due to a threshold issue, it is not suitable for EU-level absorption of small national shocks. It is rather meant to deliver a large punch once activated, which should occur only in case of MAJOR events for the labour market. Had such a scheme been in place in the EU during the period 2000-2012, it would have been triggered 40 times.
Relevant posts:
- Katz, F. L., Kroft, K., Lange, F. & Notowidigdo, M. (2014) “Addressing long-term unemployment in the aftermath of the Great Recession“, VoxEU Organisation, 03 December.
- Dolls, M., Fuest, C., Neumann, D. & Peichl, A. (2014) “An Unemployment Insurance Scheme for the Euro Area? A Comparison of Different Alternatives using Micro Data“, Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Discussion Paper No. 14-095, 28 October.
- Dullien, S. (2014) “Why A European Unemployment Insurance Would Help To Make EMU More Sustainable“, Social Europe Journal, 03 October.