Enhanced unemployment benefits, mental health, and substance use among low-income households during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: To buffer the economic impacts of the pandemic-induced economic downturns, the U.S. government passed major economic stimulus bills that provided cash payments to affected citizens and a large boost to unemployment benefits. We ask what impact these enhanced safety-net policies have had on mental health and stress-induced substance use among low-income Americans, especially enhanced unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, which constituted a large economic transfer to those eligible. METHODS: Using individual fixed effects analysis of a panel of nearly 900 low-income Americans since the start of the pandemic from the Understanding America Survey, we examine how receipt of enhanced unemployment benefits has impacted the mental health burden and substance use behaviors of low-income Americans. We additionally examine the buffering effect of a set of other safety-net measures (Stimulus, Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, housing assistance, EITC, WIC, and CHIP). RESULTS: We found that job loss, regardless of benefit receipt, was associated with increased stress and decreased average substance use, driven by reduced smoking when compared with those were employed. Yet, when factoring in UI receipt we see that receiving UI was associated with reduced stress, but no impact on depression or substance use. In contrast, those who did not receive UI experienced greater stress compared with those who were employed. Overall, we found that people who remained employed used substances more than people who were unemployed regardless of UI receipt with the exception of drinking. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that enhanced unemployment offset some of the negative mental health effects of the pandemic and did not increase routine substance use among the unemployed.

"I Could Be Unemployed the Rest of the Year”: Unprecedented Times and the Challenges of "Making More”

The COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented in many ways, but perhaps no more so than in the sudden expansion of—and increase in—unemployment assistance benefits. We ask how precarious workers, many of whom were "hustling” for money or engaged in creative fields, feel about making more on unemployment. How are they using the funds? We draw on remote interviews and online surveys with 199 gig and precarious workers in New York City during the first wave of the pandemic. We find that workers are ambivalent about unemployment assistance and concerned that a financial influx today portends a shortage tomorrow. This "specter of the unknown” affected workers' use of their benefits. As a result, even though the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was intended to mitigate the social and economic impact of the pandemic, these programs—despite being helpful—may have also contributed to precarious workers becoming even more certain of their insecurity.

The Sabbath Observer, the Idiosyncratist, and the Religious Organization: How the EEOC Imagines Religion at Work

Charged with enforcing Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission plays an overlooked but profoundly important role in shaping American religious life. While scholars of religion, law, and American culture have devoted a great deal of energy to analyzing the ways that federal courts define religion for the purposes of protecting it, they have paid less attention to the role of administrative agencies, like the EEOC. In this article, I argue that the private workplace offers a critical site for understanding how the state regulates and manages American religious life. I look to the EEOC's regulatory guidelines and compliance manuals as important sources for understanding the shifting relationship between religion, law, and work in the United States. I identify three modes of religiosity—or three types of religious actors—existing in tension in the EEOC archive, each bearing a distinct genealogy: the Sabbath Observer, the Idiosyncratist, and the Organization. While gesturing to very different notions of what religion is, the figures of the Idiosyncratist and the Organization both assume that demands of religion and work can be neatly reconciled. They presume that religion can be seamlessly integrated into the workplace without disrupting the functioning of capitalism. However, for those concerned about economic inequality, corporate power, and neoliberal working conditions, I suggest that it may be useful to revisit the EEOC's Sabbath Observer, who insists on the right to collective forms of life and value outside of work and the market.

Fiscal Stabilization in the United States: Lessons for Monetary Unions

The debate about the use of fiscal instruments for macroeconomic stabilization has regained prominence in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and its relevance has suddenly increased further, after the recent Covid-19 shock. The analysis of fiscal stabilization in the United States, a monetary union equipped with a common fiscal capacity, has often informed the literature on the European EMU and could serve as a reference for its possible future reforms. This paper expands that literature in three ways: first, by measuring stabilization not only as inter-state risk-sharing of asymmetric shocks, but also as intertemporal stabilization of common shocks;second, by doing this for specific items in the US federal budget, both on the revenue and on the expenditure side;and third, by also measuring the impact of the federal system of unemployment benefits and of its extension as a response to the Great Recession. Corporate and personal income tax, on the revenue side, and social security benefits and federal grants, on the spending side, are the most effective items. The US federal system of unemployment insurance provides great stabilization in the event of a large shock, in particular when enhanced by the discretionary program of extended benefits. These findings imply that a proper design of the budget can maximize its stabilization effect, when it helps bridging the gap between higher mobility of capital and lower mobility of labor, by collecting revenues based on the income of the most mobile factor (corporate income tax) and providing support to the income of the least mobile factor (social security).

Too Much of a Good Thing? Australian Cash Transfer Replacement Rates During the Pandemic

During the early stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020 the Australian federal government temporarily expanded the level of cash relief available to the working‐age population through supplemental benefit payments, a wage subsidy and allowing lump sum withdrawals from private pensions. Here we examine the scope and direct distributional consequences of these measures. Two in five working‐age Australians received at least one of these three forms of transfer over a 12‐month window. The median recipient had close to half their pre‐COVID‐19 income ‘replaced' by transfers. The programs interacted to create a two‐tier welfare safety net that put in place a poverty‐alleviating income floor for workers in low‐earning occupations and those on unemployment benefits, and provided job certainty and greater direct income support to those with higher incomes. Aggregate weekly incomes were higher during the initial period of COVID‐19 than they were pre‐COVID‐19. Descriptive exercises, such as this, do not provide information about the ‘impact' of pandemic policies and are limited to what they directly measure. That noted, we raise an important question for decision‐makers facing future shocks: at what point is there ‘too much of a good thing' with crisis cash transfers?

Are sustainable firms more profitable during COVID-19? Recent global evidence of firms in developed and emerging economies

PurposeThis paper investigates whether sustainability performance (SP) protects financial performance (FP) for firms in both developed and emerging economies during the COVID-19-induced economic downturn.Design/methodology/approachUsing a recent sample of firms in 34 countries between 2003 and 2021, the authors employ ordinary least squares regressions, moderations and the Heckman two-step method to test the hypotheses.FindingsFirms with strong SP have higher FP in developed and emerging economies in the upcoming year. During the COVID-19 crisis in 2020–2021, the impact of sustainability on FP is pronounced in developed but not in emerging economies. Furthermore, cross-listings expose firms in emerging economies to high-standard institutional mechanisms in developed economies. Thus, sustainable firms in emerging economies cross-listed on European stock exchanges are more profitable.Practical implicationsFor regulators and standard setters, the global-level comparative analysis helps them find solutions that may assist firms in improving SP globally (e.g. mandatory reporting) and enduring crises resiliently. For institutional investors, the study reveals the relatively different impact of sustainability risk for firms in developed and emerging economies. For practitioners and private sector firms, this study contributes to the dialogue on what makes firms more resilient in COVID-19. Although COVID-19 might be temporary, the lessons learned could protect firms from future crises.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the contingency perspective between sustainability and financial performance by providing recent empirical evidence in a global setting during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors demonstrate how different external institutional mechanisms (rule-based governance and relation-based governance) and cross-listing affect the SP-FP relationship during a crisis. The authors extend the knowledge in crisis management literature with a comparative study and fill the research gap on how SP affects FP for firms in emerging economies compared to developed economies.

Checking Activation at the Door: Rethinking the Welfare-Work Nexus in Light of Australia's Covid-19 Response

Public health measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted welfare regimes around the world. The Australian government suspended activation requirements for millions of social security clients and substantially increased payment levels. Both measures go against the dominant policy logic over the past several decades in Australian social policy. When these changes were made, many advocates and academics called for a permanent increase in the rate of payment and a relaxation of activations requirements. The Australian Government insisted the stimulus package was temporary and that there would be a gradual return to the pre-pandemic policy settings. In this article, we examine what was learned during this natural experiment of unconditional higher payments, which temporarily lifted millions of households out of poverty. We argue that a return to pre-pandemic policy settings should not go unchecked as there remains an opportunity to consider alternative approaches to the welfare-work nexus in Australia.

ÜLKEMÍZDE ÍŞSÍZLÍK SÍGORTASI VE ÍŞSÍZLÍK SÍGORTASINDA GÜNCEL SORUNLAR

Dünyada 19.yy sonu, 20.yy başı itibariyle uygulanmaya başlayan işsizlik sigortasının ülkemizde kurulması ise 20.yy sonunda, 1999 yılında gerçekleşmiştir. Íşsizlik sigortası, Uluslararası Çalışma Örgütü'nün (ILO) kabul ettiǧi 9 temel sosyal güvenlik riskinden biri olan işsizliǧin olumsuz sonuçlarını azaltmayı hedefler. Kendi kusuru ve iradesi dışında işsiz kalan kişilerin faydalanabildiǧi işsizlik sigortası, işsizliǧin ortaya çıkardıǧı sorunlarla mücadele etmeye çalışan pasif istihdam politikalarındandır. Pasif istihdam politikası olan işsizlik sigortası, aynı zamanda işsizliǧi azaltmayı hedefleyen aktif istihdam politikalarıyla birlikte deǧerlendirilmektedir. Çalışmamızın amacı işsizlik sigortasının sosyal güvenlik hukukundaki yerini tartışmak ve güncel sorunlarına deǧinmektir. Bu kapsamda işsizlik sigortasının hem dünyadaki hem ülkemizdeki tarihçesi anlatıldıktan sonra sosyal güvenlik hukukunda işsizlik sigortasının yeri ile ilgili mevzuata dayalı açıklamalar yapılmıştır. Yapılan bu mevzuat açıklamalarında işsizlik ödeneǧine başvuru, ödenekten yararlanma şartları, işsizlik ödeneǧine hak kazanan kişilere sunulan hizmetler, işsizlik ödeneǧinin kesildiǧi haller, işe iade davası sonucunun işsizlik ödeneǧine etkisi gibi konulara deǧinilmiştir. Elde edilen bulgulara göre işsizlik ödeneǧine hak kazanmada işveren bildiriminin esas alınmasının maǧduriyetler yarattıǧı, işsiz kesimin çok küçük bir bölümünün işsizlik sigortasından faydalandıǧı, işsizlerin işsizlik sigortasına erişiminin mevzuattaki şartlardan dolayı oldukça kısıtlı olduǧu ve işsizlik fonunun amacından saptırılarak işverenlere destek aracına dönüştürüldüǧü gözlemlenmiştir. Tüm bu deǧerlendirmeler sonucunda işsiz kişilerin işsizlik sigortasından faydalanmasını kolaylaştıracak düzenlemelerin yapılmasının ve işsizlik fonunun "işveren destek fonuna" dönüştürülmemesi gerektiǧinin altı çizilecektir.Alternate :Unemployment insurance, which started to be implemented in the world at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, was established in our country at the end ofthe 20th century, in 1999. Unemployment insurance aims to reduce the negative consequences of unemployment, which is one of the 9 basic social security risks accepted by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Unemployment insurance, which can be used by people who are unemployed through their own fault and will, is one of the passive employment policies that try to fight the problems caused by unemployment. Unemployment insurance, which is a passive employment policy, is also evaluated together with active employment policies that aim to reduce unemployment. The aim of our study is to discuss the place of unemployment insurance in social security law and to address its current problems. In this context, after explaining the history of unemployment insurance both in the world and in our country, explanations based on the legislation regarding the place of unemployment insurance in social security law were made. In these legislative explanations, issues such as the application for unemployment benefits, the conditions for benefiting from the benefit, the services provided to the people who are entitled to unemployment benefits, the cases where the unemployment benefit is cut off, the effect of the result of the reemployment lawsuit on the unemployment benefit are mentioned. According to the findings, it has been observed that taking the employer's notification as the basis for entitlement to unemployment benefits creates grievances, a very small part of the unemployed people benefit from unemployment insurance, the access of the unemployed to unemployment insurance is very limited due to the conditions in the legislation, and the unemployment fund has been diverted from its purpose and turned into a support tool for employers. As a result of all these evaluations, it will be underlined that arrangements should be made to make it easier for the unemployed to benefit from unemployment insurance and that the unemployment fund should not be transformed into an "employer support fund".

An Ounce of Financial Preparation

[...]many consumers have lost jobs and therefore unemployment benefits are an important financial safety net. The CARES Act as well as local and state government initiatives are providing resources to help consumers weather financial storms that are still battering their households as result of the coronavirus pandemic. Other nonfinancial resources at the local level and state level, in the form of an eviction stay, suspension of utility disconnection, student loan deferment, free virtual education centers for students, and community distribution of food can help those resources stretch even further.

Racial and ethnic disparities in who receives unemployment benefits during COVID-19.

The impact of COVID-19 on job displacement in the United States has been unevenly experienced by race, ethnicity, and the socioeconomically disadvantaged. Although unemployment benefits may mitigate the effects of job displacement, this social safety net is also unevenly distributed across workers. We examine racial/ethnic differences in receiving unemployment benefits among workers displaced by the pandemic. We use data from the US Census Household Pulse Survey (HPS), which is specifically designed to capture the real time effects of the pandemic across a wide spectrum of social issues. (US Census, 2020) Unlike the Current Population Survey (CPS) data used in the monthly unemployment rate calculations, the HPS data allow us to identify workers directly displaced from their jobs by the pandemic. We analyze over 1.3 million HPS interviews from the first stage of the pandemic when the disruptions to the labor market were the most severe, covering the period from June 11, 2020 to December 22, 2020. We contribute to the literature on the labor market effects of the pandemic in two ways. One, the HPS data allow us to identify workers who directly experienced job loss as a result of the disruptions created by COVID-19 and to determine who did not receive unemployment insurance. Two, we present both bivariate and multivariate analyses to examine racial/ethnic disparities for five groups: non-Hispanic whites, Blacks, Hispanic, Asian, and non-Hispanic Other workers. We find that Black and Hispanic workers are more likely to be unemployed without Unemployment Insurance (UI). Black workers are 12.0% of the employed but 17.5% of displaced workers without UI. Hispanic workers are even more affected. Hispanic workers are 15.6% of the employed, but are 23.4% of all displaced workers without UI. Although there are limitations to using the HPS data-the survey was administered online in only English and Spanish and occupational and industry data are not available for displaced workers, the results still provide valuable insights informing the current policy debate about the effects of expanding UI.

What, Me Worry? Financial Knowledge Overconfidence and the Perception of Emergency Fund Needs

We examined the association between financial knowledge overconfidence and the perception of emergency fund needs using the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) dataset. Only 28% of respondents reported a perceived amount of emergency funds needed that would cover at least three months of estimated spending. We conducted an OLS regression analysis on the log of the ratio of perceived emergency fund needs to household monthly expenditure. Overconfident respondents perceived a ratio 21.4% lower than those who had objective and subjective financial knowledge above median levels. Overconfident respondents might be underestimating emergency fund needs, suggesting the importance of not only increasing objective financial knowledge but also making consumers aware of the limitations of their financial knowledge.

Has COVID-19 caused a change in the dynamics of the unemployment rate? The case of North America and continental Europe

This study raises the question of whether the COVID-19 pandemic will have a long-lasting impact on the dynamics of the unemployment rate. More specifically, this problem implies an analysis of whether any sign of a structural break is detectable in the time series of the unemployment rate. To obtain some "first-hand" estimates on whether it is likely that a structural break will occur in the labour market, this study performs several one-step-ahead forecasts based on the best ARIMA model on the time series of the unemployment rate, which takes advantage of the availability of the unemployment rate data for five quarters following the pandemic outbreak. Interestingly, the results document practically no difference in the impact of the pandemic on the labour market in countries with different labour market flexibility. Neither North America (United States of America and Canada) with a flexible labour market nor continental Europe (Germany and Austria) with a regulated labour market experienced any regime change in the unemployment rate time series.

Social insurance and entrepreneurship: The effect of unemployment benefits on new-business formation

Research Summary This article studies the impacts of social insurance on the decisions of unemployed individuals to start businesses. Exploiting staggered changes in benefit generosity across U.S. states and over time, I find that higher unemployment insurance (UI) benefits both lower the probability that an unemployed person will become self-employed, and also extend the length of time that passes before they make such a transition. The negative effects of UI benefits are concentrated on the formation of unincorporated businesses. Unincorporated businesses created by unemployed people in higher-benefit state-periods tend to be more successful, as measured by profit and survival rate, suggesting that higher benefits mainly screen out the entry of less productive firms. The negative effects are smaller during nonrecession periods and in states that offer a Self-Employment Assistance program. Managerial Summary During the COVID-19 pandemic, the share of new entrepreneurs who were initially unemployed reached the highest level (30%) recorded in 25 years. This article studies factors that impact the decision of unemployed people to start businesses. My empirical results show that higher unemployment insurance (UI) benefits deter unemployed people from forming unincorporated businesses, while those that do enter the marketplace perform better than others located in lower-benefit state-periods. These results suggest that higher UI benefits mainly screen out lower-quality businesses due to the requirement that business profits have to be deducted from UI benefits. The disincentive effects are larger in states without Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) program and during recessions, suggesting the need for widespread policies like the SEA program, especially during economic downturns.

Geographic spread of COVID-19 and local economies: Heterogeneous effects by establishment size and industry.

Using province-level establishments and employment data from the Korean Employment Insurance Database, this paper investigates how the regional spread of COVID-19 affects local businesses and unemployment by establishment size and industry. We find that the number of small establishments declines substantially after the COVID-19 pandemic through a decrease in new establishment creation and a surge in establishment closures. By contrast, large establishments are not affected significantly. Examining the numbers of unemployment benefits (UB) applicants, an indicator of unemployment, we find that the higher the rate of COVID-19 confirmed cases in a province, the higher the number of UB applicants, regardless of their previous workplace size. Our analysis of employment insurance subscribers further confirms that the regional spread of COVID-19 leads to a significant reduction in employment and job mobility in small establishments. Regarding industry heterogeneity in the COVID-19 effects, we find that local COVID-19 outbreaks affect local industries more through the reduction in establishment creation and new employment than through an increase in establishment closures. Industries that require face-to-face operations, such as lodging & restaurant, experience a substantial adverse impact in the early phase, and the impact also tends to last longer as COVID-19 situations prolong.

Public support for U.S. social safety net policies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 has stretched the U.S. social safety net and prompted federal legislation designed to ameliorate the pandemic's health and economic impacts. We surveyed a nationally representative cohort of 1222 U.S. adults in April 2020 and November 2020 to evaluate changes in public opinion about 11 social safety net policies and the role of government over the course of the pandemic. A majority of U.S. adults supported six policies at both time points, including policies guaranteeing two weeks of paid sick leave; enacting universal health insurance; increasing the federal minimum wage; and increasing government spending on construction projects, business tax credits, and employment education and training. From April to November 2020, public support was stable for nine of the 11 policies but declined nearly 10 percentage points for policies guaranteeing two weeks paid sick leave (from 76% support in April 2020 to 67% support in November 2020) and extending unemployment insurance benefits (51% to 42%). Declines in support for these two policies were concentrated among those with higher incomes, more education, in better health status, the employed, and those with health insurance. The share of respondents believing in a strong role of government also declined from 33% in April to 26% in November 2020 (p > 0.05). Despite these shifts, we observed consistent majority support for several policies enacted during the pandemic, including guaranteeing paid sick leave and business tax credits, as well as employment-related policies.

The forms of decommodification and (de)familisation measures during COVID-19: What is the impact on female's welfare?

Using the decommodification and (de)familisation framework, this paper examines the two main Social Safety Net programme during the pandemic and its effect on female welfare in Indonesia. It is argued that despite expansion of decommodification measures through unemployment benefits, females tend to benefit less because the existing labour force structure is highly dominated by males. Hence, the only way of being financially secure is to have access to Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), which means it then exposes them to greater risk of familisation. This is because to be eligible for CCT, they are (informally) required to perform unpaid caregiving. This article concludes that familial ethics has become a rationale for the state to push females to seek social support through a family relationship, resulting in social risk internalisation during the COVID-19 crisis, rather granting them citizenship rights-based welfare.

Do unemployment benefits and economic aids to pay electricity bills remove the energy poverty risk of Spanish family units during lockdown? A study of COVID-19-induced lockdown.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered serious economic crises in many countries. In Spain, millions of individuals have been ordered to remain at home and many are unemployed. The increased use of electrical appliances and low incomes make energy poverty highly likely. This study thus analyses the effectiveness of unemployment benefits and social measures to help Spanish family units pay their electricity bill during the COVID-19-induced lockdown in Spain (March-May 2020) and during a hypothetical lockdown in winter and summer. The results showed that the unemployment aids can contribute to alleviating energy poverty, especially if the unemployed individual worked in a poorly-paying job or for just a few hours. However, the social measures were found insufficient to avoid energy poverty. The application of a variable discount percentage in the electricity bill based on income and the month of the year would reduce energy poverty risk during further incidences of lockdown.