Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2025

Abstract

During COVID-19, for the first time in U.S. history, Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits were extended to non-standard workers who are not typically eligible for that. Given the exclusion from the social security system, this offers an important opportunity to investigate such benefits on their economic and emotional security. To estimate it, I analyze staggered difference-in-differences and triple difference models using the Household Pulse Survey. I found that the early termination of the expanded pandemic UI program led to increases in financial and mental difficulties among residents, especially non-standard workers with more difficulty in paying expenses and depression. These findings suggest that expanded eligibility for social insurance programs can help alleviate economic insecurity and associated mental health problems for categories of workers who have been excluded from the existing system, particularly in the face of unexpected crises and labor market disruptions.

Comments

© 2025 The Author(s). Risk Management and Insurance Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Risk and Insurance Association.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Publication Title

Risk Management and Insurance Review

DOI

10.1111/rmir.70007

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