This book examines unemployment insurance policy through a survey, taking stock of the theoretical work in the field of labor economics. It closely follows and assesses developments in the modelling of optimal unemployment insurance (UI) policies, beginning with the initial analytical findings produced in the second half of the 1970s. A main part of the survey is devoted to the two basic strands of analysis about, respectively, the optimal level of UI benefits and the optimal time profile of UI policy. The book has two different objectives. The first is to provide an essential summary of the individual models, with the intention of underscoring how a number of specific messages for the policy-maker can be derived from analytical constructions. It further emphasizes and comments on what the models deliver to UI policy-makers. The second objective is to stress the importance and extension of open questions in the field of the theoretical approach to the unemployment insurance issue. The survey discusses the multiplicity of heterogeneities of the labor world in particular as relevant for UI issues on the one side, and on the other hand, the independence of the two basic choices of UI policy, its meaning and its limits, and the possible forms of complementarity between these choices. The book is a must-read for researchers, students, and policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the field of labor economics in general, as well as unemployment insurance policies in particular.

Autorentext

Paola Potestio is an emeritus professor of economics at the University of Rome III (Italy). Between 1994-2016 she was a full professor of economics at the University of Rome III. Previously, she has taught at the University of Chieti (full professor at the Faculty of Economics from 1990 to 1993), the University of  Roma "La Sapienza" (associate professor at the Faculty of Statistics from 1982 to 1989), and LUISS University in Rome (lecturer at the Faculty of Economics from 1992 to 1998). Potestio served as dean of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Rome III from 1998 to 2008. She was a member of the board of the Italian Society of Economists from 2001 to 2004. She was then elected vice-president of the Italian Society of Economists for the 2007-2010 term. Since October 2010 she has been a member of the Board of Arbitration of the Italian Society of Economists. Her research mainly focusses on a wide range of theoretical issues, including the classical theory of value and distribution, the linear theory of production, the Walrasian models of general equilibrium, capital theory and the critiques of the neoclassical capital theory, employment theory and the unemployment equilibrium and employment protection models. Most recently, she conducted research on unemployment insurance issues and the associated theoretical aspects. In applied economics, she has worked on a wide range of issues in labor economics, and her recent interest has focused on the relationships between educational attainment and employment.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. The starting points.- Chapter 3. The optimal level of unemployment insurance.- Chapter 4. The optimal time profile of UI policy.- Chapter 5. Unemployment insurance over the business cycles.- Chapter 6. Some further notes on the role of a UI system.- Chapter 7. Conclusions.