Unemployment Duration and the Take-Up of Unemployment Insurance

A large fraction of the eligible unemployed workers does not claim for unemployment insurance (UI) and, among claimants, many do register immediately upon layoff. This paper argues that, to understand this intriguing phenomenon, one needs model jointly job search and take-up efforts allow heterogeneity in both dimensions. Estimating such a using French administrative data, we find substantial claiming frictions. If half sample faces high frictions, have good employment prospects exit quickly. The burden difficulties is concentrated on 10% that suffers from difficulties. For reason, alleviation complexity process likely very heterogenous effects but little effect aggregate duration. Additionally show link between has important implications when measuring how UI parameters impact