The Effect of the Extended Benefit Duration on the Aggregate Labor Market

실업급여 지급기간 변화의 효과 분석

I develop a matching model in which risk-averse workers face borrowing constraints and make a labor force participation decision as well as a job search decision. A sharp distinction between unemployment and out of the labor force is made: those who look for work for a certain period but find no job are classified as the unemployed and those who do not look for work are classified as those out of the labor force. In the model, the job search decision consists of two steps. First, each individual who is not working obtains information about employment opportunities. Second, each individual who decides to search has to take costly actions to find a job. Since individuals differ with respect to asset holdings, they have different reservation job-finding probabilities at which an individual is indifferent between searching and not searching. Individuals, who have large asset holdings and thereby are less likely to participate in the labor market, have high reservation job-finding probability, and they are less likely to search if they have less quality of information. In other words, if individuals with large asset holdings search for job, they must have very high quality of information and face very high actual job-finding probability. On the other hand, individuals with small asset holdings have low reservation job-finding probability and they are likely to search for less quality of information. They face very low actual job-finding probability and seem to remain unemployed for a long time. Therefore, differences in the quality of information explain heterogeneous job search decisions among individuals as well as higher job finding probability for those who reenter the labor market than for those who remain in the labor force. The effect of the extended maximum duration of unemployment insurance benefits on the aggregate labor market and the labor market flows is investigated. The benchmark benefit duration is set to three months. As maximum benefit duration is extended up to six months, the employment-population ratio decreases while the unemployment rate increases because individuals who are eligible for benefits have strong incentives to remain unemployed and decide to search even if they obtain less quality of information, which leads to low job-finding probability and then high unemployment rate. Then, the vacancy-unemployment ratio decreases and, in turn, the job-finding probability for both the unemployed and those out of the labor force decrease. Finally, the outflow from nonparticipation decreases with benefit duration because the equilibrium job-finding probability decreases. As the job-finding probability decreases, those who are out of the labor force are less likely to search for the same quality of information. I also consider the matching model with two states of employment and unemployment. Compared to the results of the two-state model, the simulated effects of changes in benefit duration on the aggregate labor market and the labor market flows are quite large and significant.

본고에서는 노동자들이 위험 기피적이고 차입제약을 갖는 Mortensen-Pissarides(1994) 매칭모형에 경제활동참여 의사결정을 내생화하여 실업급여 지급기간 변화가 노동시장에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 모형의 실업은 구직활동을 하였으나 일자리를 찾지 못한 상태로 정의하고, 비경제활동은 비구직활동으로 정의한다. 경제활동참여 의사결정을 내생화하기 위하여 개별 노동자들이 노동시장으로부터 서로 다른 정확성을 갖는 정보를 관찰하고, 이러한 정보가 개별 구직확률에 영향을 준다고 가정한다. 개별 경제주체들의 자산보유규모가 서로 다르기 때문에 구직활동을 하는 것과 하지 않는 것을 무차별하게 만드는 의중구직확률 또한 서로 다르다. 따라서 자신이 관찰한 정보의 정확성이 충분히 높아서 실제 구직확률이 자신의 의중구직확률보다 높은 사람들은 구직활동을 선택하게 된다. 이러한 모형을 바탕으로 실업급여 지급기간 3개월을 벤치마크로 하여 지급기간을 각각 4개월부터 6개월까지 연장할 때 전체 노동시장 및 경제활동상태 간 노동자들의 이동비율에 미치는 효과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 실업급여 지급기간의 연장은 취업자들의 근속기간을 늘리는데, 근속기간이 늘어나면 취업자들의 예비적 동기에 의한 저축이 늘어나고, 저축에 따른 자산보유규모의 증가는 노동의 한계비용을 증가시켜 노동시장에서 이탈할 유인을 제공한다. 따라서 경제활동참가율을 떨어뜨린다. 둘째, 실업급여 지급기간이 늘어날 때 실업급여 수급자격을 갖춘 경제주체들의 의중구직확률은 떨어지고 실업상태에 남을 확률은 높아져 실업자 수가 증가한다. 따라서 실업률이 상승한다. 셋째, 실업자 수의 증가는 균형 공석-실업비율을 감소시켜 경제 전체의 구직확률을 낮추게 되며, 이는 차례로 비경제활동상태에 있는 사람들의 경제활동참여를 저해하는 효과를 야기한다. 이러한 결과는 비경제활동을 고려하지 않았을 때에는 나타나지 않는 현상이다.