“Tell Them It's Vandelay Industries! Do Job Search Requirements Work?” with David Fuller, Chad Cotti (2023)

Since 2012, the federal government has mandated job search requirements for state unemployment insurance (UI) programs. Following this, many states have increased the number of job search contacts requi

red to collect UI benefits. For example, in 2013, Wisconsin increased its initial job search requirement from two to four jobs minimum. Using synthetic control methods, we estimate the effect of these policies changes on the labor market, and find that increasing job search requirement decreased UI exhaustion rate by about 6 percent and decreased initial claims by 33 percent on average. Then, we propose a two-sided equilibrium search model to quantify such effects on heterogeneous workers’ job search decisions and study the labor market implications of job search requirements. Last, we find the optimal job search requirement. [Click here for more]