L'indemnisation du chômage : au-delà d'une conception « désincitative »

Unemployment compensation schemes have two goals: insuring against the risk of unemployment on the one hand, and financing job search on the other hand. During the past decades, the literature has mainly focused on the first goal, highlighting the moral hazard effects originated by unemployment benefits. However, several contributions, both empirical and theoretical, suggest unemployment compensation may also improve labour market efficiency, by alleviating the financial constraints that affect the job-seekers, helping to select the efficient search channel, or favoring the creation of high quality jobs. The present paper offers a synthesis of this literature in the paradigm of sequential job search theory.