Social Insurance, Information Revelation, and Lack of Commitment

S-Tier
Journal: Journal of Political Economy
Year: 2021
Volume: 129
Issue: 9
Pages: 2629 - 2665

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We study optimal provision of unemployment insurance in a model where agents privately observe arrival of job opportunities and government’s ability to commit is imperfect. Imperfect commitment implies that full information revelation is generally suboptimal. Social welfare is convex in the probability with which agents reveal their private information. In the optimum, each agent is provided with incentives to either fully reveal his private information or not reveal it at all. The optimal contract can be decentralized by a joint system of unemployment and disability benefits in a way that resembles how these systems are used in practice.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/715022
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25