Social Interactions in Unemployment

43 Pages Posted: 24 Jul 2003

See all articles by Rafael Lalive

Rafael Lalive

University of Lausanne - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

Date Written: November 2003

Abstract

This paper studies the relevance of social interactions among the unemployed. Identification is based on a salient and selective extension of the potential duration of unemployment benefits. If social interactions are important, this policy change affects entitled individuals not only directly, but also indirectly by altering the duration of unemployment in the reference group. Moreover, this spillover effect of the policy should also be observed in the non-entitled group. Results indicate that there are strong indirect effects on the entitled, strong positive spillovers on the non-entitled, and the social interactions are about as important as the direct effects of the policy change.

Keywords: Social Interactions, Social Multiplier, Unemployment, Quasi-experiment

JEL Classification: C41, J64, J65

Suggested Citation

Lalive, Rafael, Social Interactions in Unemployment (November 2003). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=422540 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.422540

Rafael Lalive (Contact Author)

University of Lausanne - Department of Economics ( email )

Batiment Internef
Lausanne, 1015
Switzerland

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

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