Dylan+M

Citations Nicholson, Walter Needels, Karen,. "Unemployment Insurance: Strengthening the Relationship between Theory and Policy." //American economic association//. (2006): n. page. 0. .
 * Slaves mostly took roman jobs
 * Slaves kept increasing, millions of slaves
 * The slaves were the people Rome had conquered
 * Farmers had to sell their farms and then were unemployed
 * About 100,000 people were unemployed
 * Farmers became unemployed because of overusing farmland and because of land behind destroyed
 * The roman government taxed Romans more because they lost money not trading and the Romans couldn’t pay
 * The employment rate just went down to 8.3 percent in us
 * 13.1 million people in us are unemployed
 * 9 percent of whites were unemployed
 * 16.5 percent of blacks are unemployed
 * 12.5 percent of Hispanics are unemployed
 * Men were more unemployed than women
 * The women increased 81%
 * Helper, and construction trade is the most unemployed job at 36.0%
 * Are the lowest unemployed job at 0.4%

Frank E. Smitha,. "Fall of the Roman Empire." //Rome.info//. Partnerships for sustainable development, 2009. Web. 7 Feb 2012. .

. "Reasons why the Roman Empire Fell." //The roman empire//. Copyright Roman Colosseum.info © 2008, n.d. Web. 8 Feb 2012. .

1. What was the unemployment rate in Rome?

 1. Does unemployment insurance help the overall rate of unemployment in our nation or do you believe it encourages more people to stay unemployed?
 * **Abstract** ||
 * Ever since the U.S. federal-state system of unemployment insurance was founded in the 1930s, it has provided partial, temporary replacement of wages to eligible workers who lose jobs -- through no fault of their own -- (as determined by state-level regulations). Unemployment insurance is one of the largest social insurance programs in the United States, with benefits paid totaling about $34 billion in 2004. Economic theory can help us understand the challenges this complex program is likely to face over the next few years. We begin by summarizing the salient characteristics of the unemployment insurance program and then examine the theoretical and econometric research. Much of this research revolves around the main goals of the program, which include: 1) sustaining consumption for workers and their families; 2) helping recipients to make efficient job choices during a period of financial stress; and 3) minimizing the adverse incentives that may accompany partial wage replacement. Of course, these goals can come into conflict -- for example, if replacing wages for an unemployed worker also discourages that worker from aggressively searching for or accepting a new job -- and our discussion will focus on these conflicts. In conclusion, we address the key policy issues that the unemployment insurance system is likely to face in upcoming years and ways policymakers may be able to use economic analysis to adjust the program so that it remains effective in addressing the needs of unemployed workers. ||

The answer is “both”. Getting UI benefits helps to bolster demand in the economy and therefore helps spur recovery. But there is a lot of research showing that UI causes people to stay unemployed longer, so that is a negative. The issue is particularly controversial now because UI pays benefits for up to 99 weeks. Some economists believe this has had a major impact on slowing the recovery from the recession. But certainly not everyone agrees with that. 

2. How does unemployment insurance find people to help?

UI only goes to people who lose their jobs. When a person loses a job, he or she must apply for UI benefits. This can be done over the phone or by the Internet in addition to going to the UI office in person. When people are laid off from jobs they are usually given the necessary information about how to apply for UI. Most people who have had a job for some time are eligible. Benefits vary widely from state-to-state. At the low end they are about $200 per week, but can be above $600 per week in some places. 

3. Where does funding for unemployment insurance come from?

UI is really two programs. The state program covers the first 26 weeks of benefits. That is financed by a tax on employers. Extended benefits (beyond 26 weeks) are financed by the Federal government from general tax revenues (i.e. the income tax) or from borrowing.

Dear Mr. Nicholson,

Thank you so much for your detailed email. After reviewing your information I have a few more questions. My thoughts are that maybe the employer could receive some perks like UI from the government instead of the unemployed. Since you described how the state and federal government give money for UI, my thesis is going to be centered around creating a program where the money that was used for UI is now given to the employers to use for their own insurance or other needs in their company. Since in Rome the slaves were taking all the jobs and creating unemployment for citizens, I am going to propose that a UI type benefit be given to employers instead of the unemployed for freeing their slaves and hiring the unemployed.

I was wondering if you knew of any programs in the United States that offers money to companies for doing certain things (like freeing the slaves in Rome)?

Thank you so much for all you help! I am a 7th grader at Nagel Middle School in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was not interested in economics until I read your article and others about UI. I want to base my project off of that, so thank you!   Hi Dylan – Your ideas show why you need to learn some economics. The key words, obviously, are supply and demand. To understand how any market works you need to understand how these two sides of the market operate. With regard to the labor market, firms do the demanding, workers do the supplying. So any scheme to get firms to do more hiring must be clear about their incentives to do so. “Giving firms money” provides no such incentive, so you would need to be much more specific about what firms would have to do to get funds. There are programs of wage subsidies that have this purpose – Canada has some of the largest such programs. Using UI funds to provide wage subsidies has indeed been proposed in the US and in fact there have been some experiments doing so. There are lots of problems with such plans, however, such as giving firms a subsidy for what they would have done anyway. Other programs focus on subsidizing worker training or, sometimes, giving workers themselves funds to pursue self-employment. All such schemes are worth looking at <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Final project: []