Evolving patterns of unemployment protection expenditures: Australia and the OECD
Vera Brusentsev and Wayne Vroman
University of Delaware and The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C
Contact Email:   brusentvlerner.udel.edu

This paper will examine important trends in expenditures by unemployment protection programs within the OECD with major attention to developments in Australia. Two empirical data bases will be utilized: 1) the OECD social expenditures data base and 2) a data base developed by the authors to characterize spending on unemployment compensation (UC) among OECD countries.

The social expenditures data base tracks spending in OECD member countries on active measures to promote employment and passive measures to provide income support to the unemployed. These data are available from 1985 but for several countries they extend back to 1980. The analysis will assess the degree to which spending has evolved towards an increased share being spent on active measures.

Our UC data base has time series data on unemployment compensation spending, number of beneficiaries and benefit replacement rates that extend back for at least 40 years in most OECD countries. This analysis will highlight changes in recipiency rates and replacement rates with attention to developments since 1980.

In both areas, the analysis will emphasize developments at three levels of geographic detail: 1) a set of 20 countries that have been OECD members for more than 40 years, 2) six English speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States), and 3) Australia. The analysis will utilize time series multiple regressions and will summarize important policy developments.

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