PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Doris, Aedín
AU  - O’Neill, Donal
AU  - Sweetman, Olive
TI  - Does Reducing Unemployment Benefits During a Recession Reduce Youth Unemployment? Evidence from a 50 Percent Cut in Unemployment Assistance
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.55.4.0518-9501R1
DP  - 2018 Oct 16
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 0518-9501R1
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2018/10/11/jhr.55.4.0518-9501R1.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2018/10/11/jhr.55.4.0518-9501R1.full
AB  - We use administrative data to examine the effect of a 50 percent benefit cut for young unemployed claimants in Ireland during the Great Recession. Because the cut applied only to new spells, claimants whose unemployment start dates differed by one day received very different benefits; we exploit this feature in our Regression Discontinuity analysis. We find that the benefit cut significantly reduced unemployment duration, with exits to training and work accounting for the majority of this effect.