Unemployment insurance benefits and income smoothing

• Main Authors: NG, Tee Yong Jeffrey, RANASINGHE, Tharindra, SHI, Guifeng, YANG, Holly I.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: Income smoothing; Unemployment insurance; Accounting
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/1817; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soa_research/article/2844/viewcontent/1_s2.0_S0278425419300365___PV.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Labor unemployment insurance reduces unemployment concerns. We argue that these benefits moderate incentives to smooth earnings to reduce employees’ concerns about unemployment risk. Using exogenous variations in unemployment insurance benefits, we find evidence consistent with this argument. We also find that that link between unemployment insurance benefits and income smoothing is stronger when there is higher unemployment risk and when the firm is likely to employ more low-wage workers, who find unemployment insurance benefits especially useful. Our paper contributes to the literature by showing that public policy decisions such as unemployment insurance have significant, albeit probably unintended, externalities on corporate financial reporting.