[cover]

An Incentives Approach to Improving the Unemployment Compensation System

Paul L. Burgess and Jerry L. Kingston
Arizona State University

Overpayments may account for up to 15 percent of all payments made under the unemployment compensation system. Burgess and Kingston propose that this overpayment serves as a clue to the more serious problems residing in the system. The authors focus on the lack of incentives (or the existence of disincentives) for improvement within the UC program structure for all participants - claimants, employers, and state UC agencies. Other issues they explore include the excessive complexity of the system and the difficulty of effectively monitoring claimant compliance with eligibility criteria.

"Burgess and Kingston's efforts have produced an extraordinarily detailed and useful institutional analysis." ILR Review
Table of Contents
  1. Introduction
    • Study Background/Overview
    • Qualifications and Limitations of the Analysis
    • Organization of the Study
  2. Evidence on Overpayments in the UC System
    • Information on UC Program Overpayments Prior to 1980
    • The Burgess-Kingston Overpayment Study
    • Burgess-Kingston-St. Louis Study of analysis of Random Audit Program Pilot Tests
    • More Recent Evidence on UC Overpayments
  3. UC System Complexity: Adverse Effects and Responses
    • Evidence of System Complexity
    • Some Impacts and Implications of Complexity
    • Responses to Effects of System Complexity
  4. Adverse Impacts of Federal Administrative Funding Procedures
    • Background
    • Funding Impacts on Payment Accuracy and Program Quality
    • Possible Funding System Improvements
  5. Federal Criteria for State Agency Performance
    • Quality Appraisal System
    • Effects of Overemphasis on Promptness
    • Some Possible Improvements in USDOL Performance Criteria
  6. Adverse Incentives in State UC Programs
    • UC Claimants
    • Covered Employers
    • State UC Agency Personnel
  7. Administering Weekly UC Eligibility Criteria
    • Evidence on Worksearch/Availability Overpayments
    • Responses to Worksearch/Availability Monitoring Problems
  8. Summary and Conclusions

273 pp. 1987
$19 paper ISBN 0-88099-048-1 / ISBN-13 978-0-88099-048-6.

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