Is American or European Unemployment Insurance More Generous?

[ribozyme]

With the economy in tatters and the Democrats in control of the presidency and Congress come January, it would seem like the perfect time for an expansion of various social insurance schemes – a New Deal II.

But no doubt there are some on the right who think we shouldn’t go too far towards becoming a social democracy, so one way to measure our leftward movement is by comparing our programs with those of Western Europe, where social Darwinism holds less appeal.

And a new IZA study provides one such metric. Stéphane Pallage of the University of Quebec at Montreal and Lyle Scruggs and Christian Zimmermann of the University of Connecticut compare the generosity of unemployment insurance in Ohio and France. (The researchers picked those two regions because average wages and the percentage of the labor force in manufacturing were similar.)

Using data from 2005, they find that after controlling for differences like eligibility criteria and duration of benefits, France’s unemployment insurance system replaced about 50 percent of an unemployed person’s income while Ohio’s replaced only 15 percent. The researchers conclude that France’s scheme is roughly three times more generous than Ohio’s.

seekingalpha.com/article/110503-is-american-or-european-unemployment-insurance-more-generous?source=article_lb_articles

I do not know if that information would help anyone find “alpha,” but let’s also compare that to Denmark and Sweden.

"Denmark pursues a policy known as “flexicurity”-combining the flexible “hire and fire” system of freer economies and the government-provided security that is traditionally associated with continental European and Scandinavian countries. While it is far easier to fire employees than in France and Sweden, unemployment benefits is in fact even more “generous” than in Sweden (Unemployed gets 90% of their previous pay in Denmark, versus 80% in Sweden).

…

As for unemployment, the seemingly low numbers in Denmark reflect in fact the same kind of manipulation of statistics that the Swedish government have been using. While official unemployment in Denmark was only 133,500 or 4.8% in March 2006, there were in the fourth quarter (latest available number in Denmark’s statistical data bank )some 117,600 people or 4.2% in so-called “arbejdsmarkedspolitiske foranstaltninger(=“labor market political activities”, what in Sweden is refered to as “AMS-åtgärder”)”. This means that Denmark have even more hidden unemployment in that respect than even Sweden, where “only” 3.2% (144,000) were put away in “labor market political activities” .

stefanmikarlsson.blogspot.com/2006/05/denmarks-overrated-flexicurity.html

Well, where is the “arbejdsmarkedspolitiske foranstaltninger” in the US? I am sure many people would like that. While Denmark has hidden unemployment too, what about the US where many people are underemployed and there are those who simply gave up looking for a job. (In Sweden hidden unemployment also includes early retirees and people on “sick leave.”)

 

[Litcrit]

what about the US where many people are underemployed and there are those who simply gave up looking for a job.

In my post-Communist, post-socialist European country, an unemployed person cannot simply give up looking for a job - in order to get all the unemployed benefits (money, health insurance, etc.) you have to apply at the government job recruitment agency and keep looking for another job, and the agency will also offer you jobs, some of which may not be in your field or to your liking. If you refuse three offers in a row, you lose your benefits!