Beyond the added-worker and the discouraged-worker effects: the entitled-worker effect

Abstract

This paper identifies and analyses a new effect related to the cyclical behaviour of labour supply: the Entitled-Worker Effect (EWE). This effect is different from the well-known Added-Worker Effect (AWE) and Discouraged-Worker Effect (DWE). The EWE is a consequence of one of the most important labour institutions: the unemployment benefit (UB). We develop a model with uncertainty about the results of the job-seeking and transaction costs linked to such a search process, showing that a kind of moral hazard appears. This creates new incentives for workers and produces an additional counter-cyclical pressure on aggregate labour supply, but with a different foundation from that of the AWE. We present empirical evidence supporting the EWE for the Spanish case. As a forward-looking conclusion, policymakers should rethink their political actions in the future as unemployment might be overstated, particularly in those countries with generous UB systems.