Do Unemployment Insurance Recipients Actively Seek Work? Randomized Trials in Four U.S. States

Abstract

In this paper we report the results of randomized trials designed to measure whether stricter enforcement and verification of work search behavior alone decreases unemployment insurance (Ul) claims and benefits. These experiments were designed to explicitly test claims based on nonexperimental data, that a prime cause of overpayment is the failure of claimants to actively seek work. Our results provide no support for the view that the failure to actively search for work has been a cause of overpayment in the UI system.