Benefit Adequacy and UI Program Costs: Simulations with Alternative Weekly Benefit Formulas

Abstract

This is the fourth in a series of reports base don the Arizona Benefit Adequacy (ABA) Study. The first report emphasized the measurement of benefit adequacy under the prevailing and selected alternative weekly benefit amount formulas. The second investigation focuses on the adjustments undertaken by beneficiary households during periods of thirteen and twenty five consecutive weeks of compensated unemployment. The third study analyzed the labor market experiences of study group claimants who exhausted their entitlement to benefits. This report extends the analysis provided in the first ABA Study report. Emphasis is placed on the changes in total regular UI program costs and changes in benefits adequacy distributions that result from variations in the weekly benefit amount formula. This second issue contains a wide variety of research information. This issue includes three papers which examine UI research issues and suggest some possible new directions.