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IFS Working Papers
January 2005 W05/02
Article
Borrowing constraints, the cost of precautionary saving and unemployment insurance
Type: IFS Working Papers
ISSN: 1742-0415
Volume, issue, pages: 62 pp.
Now published in: International Tax and Public Finance [Details]

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Job losers exhibit significant heterogeneity in wealth holdings and in the marginal propensity to consume transitory income. We consider potential sources of this heterogeneity, whether (some of) the unemployed face borrowing constraints, and the implications of this heterogeneity for unemployment insurance. We show theoretically how the

optimal benefit can depend significantly on borrowing constraints, and on other (non-

precautionary) savings motives. We report empirical evidence that (i) a quarter of job

losers cannot borrow for current consumption, (ii) this constraint is binding for a much

smaller fraction, and (iii) that \'excess sensitivity\' is not limited to the constrained.

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