Development of Theoretical and Empirical Measures of Unemployment Insurance Reserve Fund Adequacy

摘要

When the Unemployment Insurance (UI) System was created in the mid 1930s a primary objective was to provide some means of economic security to workers who through no fault of their own had become unemployed. The primary source of financing the benefit payments is a payroll tax on employers collected by the States and deposited within the Federal Unemployment Trust Fund. As unemployment rises, reserve funds are withdrawn from the trust fund to pay benefits. When the economy recovers, tax solicitation exceed benefits and tend to replenish the fund. The systems generally worked well during the first three decades of UI but during the 1970s the system started with the largest reserve balance in its history, over $12.8 billion and wound up with half the States becoming insolvent and the system requiring substantial borrowing from general revenues to make benefit payments. The study looks at this, considers what is needed for trust fund adequacy and examines financial data to determine what reforms are necessary to guarantee long-run solvency of the entire system.