Qualifying for unemployment insurance: An empirical analysis

Little is known about the effect of unemployment insurance (UI) on employment durations. In this paper we rake advantage of a unique accidental experiment in the Canadian UI system which created an exogenous increase in the entrance requirement (the number of weeks an individual must work to qualify for benefits) of up to 4 weeks in some regions. We identify the effects of this increase primarily by comparing the hazard rate out of employment for the experimental year, 1990, with that for the preceding year in regions where other parameters of the UI system do not change.