Getting the Unemployed Back to Work Quickly: President Bush's Stimulus Package Draws on Our Research

Related Publications

President Bush’s proposed economic stimulus plan would give states $3.6 billion to provide Personal Reemployment Accounts to certain unemployed workers receiving unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. Each account would contain up to $3,000, for the purchase of intensive reemployment services—for example, counseling or case management—as well as training and supportive services, such as transportation and child care. Individuals who become reemployed by their 13th week of UI benefits would be able to "cash out" any balance in the account as a reemployment bonus. Individuals who do not get a job within this period would not be able to cash out the balance but would be able to continue to purchase services using the account for up to one year.

Mathematica has conducted research in three areas relevant to evaluating the President's proposal and designing state guidelines and local programs:

• Reemployment Bonuses.  We evaluated two major demonstrations—one in New Jersey and one in Pennsylvania—offering reemployment bonuses to UI recipients who become reemployed quickly. We also collaborated on studies of similar demonstrations in Illinois and Washington. More generally, we have summarized the theory and evidence on financial incentives in the UI system.
  
  
• Individual Training Accounts. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 mandates that local workforce agencies establish Individual Training Accounts (ITAs), which individuals use to purchase training, as they would under the President's proposal. We designed and developed an experiment that is testing the effects of alternative approaches to specifying and administering ITAs. In addition, we developed procedures, trained staff, and constructed a management system to track service and training receipt among participants (in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Labor). To date, over 4,000 people have enrolled.
  
  
• Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services.  States use Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) programs to identify and serve UI recipients most likely to exhaust their benefits. Under the President’s plan, these UI recipients would also be eligible to receive a Reemployment Account. We participated in the recent national evaluation of WPRS programs and participants, which provided a detailed description of UI recipients targeted by WPRS and the services they typically use. The evaluation also estimated the impact of WPRS programs on average UI benefit receipt. In addition to the national evaluation, we have collaborated on several other studies related to WPRS programs and other methods for targeting services.

Related Publications

"Personal Reemployment Accounts: How Would They Work?" Paul Decker and Irma Perez-Johnson, February 2004.

"What Can We Expect Under Personal Reemployment Accounts? Predictions and Procedures." Paul Decker and Irma Perez-Johnson, January 2004.

"Hearing on Unemployment Benefits and Returns to Work." Testimony Before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources. Paul T. Decker, April 2003.

"The Evaluation of the Individual Training Account Experiment: Design Report." Irma Perez-Johnson, Paul Decker, Sheena McConnell, Robert Olsen, Jacquelyn Anderson, Ronald D'Amico, and Jeffrey Salzman, September 2000.

"Reemployment Bonuses and Profiling." Christopher J. O'Leary, Paul T. Decker, and Stephen A. Wandner, 1997.

"Work Incentives and Disincentives. In Unemployment Insurance in the United States: Analysis of Policy Issues." Paul T. Decker, 1997.  

"The New Jersey Unemployment Insurance Reemployment Demonstration Project: Six-Year Follow-Up and Summary Report." Walter Corson and Joshua Haimson, 1996.

"Using the Unemployment Insurance System to Target Services to Dislocated Workers." Walter Corson and Paul T. Decker, 1996.

"Evaluating Pooled Evidence from the Reemployment Bonus Experiments." Journal of Human Resources, 1995. Paul T. Decker and Christopher J. O’Leary.

"The Impact of Reemployment Bonuses on Insured Unemployment in the New Jersey and Illinois Reemployment Bonus Experiments." Journal of Human Resources, 1994. Paul T. Decker.

"An Analysis of Pooled Evidence from the Pennsylvania and Washington Reemployment Bonus Demonstrations." Paul T. Decker and Christopher J. O’Leary, 1992. 

"Pennsylvania Reemployment Bonus Demonstration." Walter Corson, Paul Decker, Shari Dunstan, and Stuart Kerachsky, 1992. 

"The New Jersey Unemployment Insurance Reemployment Demonstration Project." Walter Corson, Paul T. Decker, Shari Miller Dunstan, and Anne R. Gordon, 1989. 

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