Applied Micro Seminar - Jenna Stearns (UC Davis)

Title:  Unequal Use of Social Insurance Benefits: The Role of Employers

Abstract: Disability Insurance (DI) and Paid Family Leave (PFL) programs are important sources of social insurance, but there is considerable inequality in benefit take-up, and little is known about the role of firms in determining benefit use. Using administrative data from California, we find that higher quality firms—based on earnings premiums and other measures—have substantially higher public DI and PFL take-up rates,and that this relationship is particularly strong among the lowest-earning workers within the firm. Our results suggest that changes in firm behavior may impact social insurance use, thus reducing an important dimension of inequality in America.