Becker proposes that to reduce moral harzard, umemployment benefits should have a deductible component–applicants should receive no benefit in the first few weeks of unemployment, the savings from such could then be used to extend the duration of benefits. Sorry, but I just don’t see how this is going to work. Unlike medical insurance, in which deductible is paid at the same time as the covered amount, unemployment insurance has a strong but low violatility temporal component. With such a policy we would likely see the unemployment-benefit-equivalent of payday loan, restoring almost all of the moral harzard.

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