Covid-19 and the U.S. Safety Net / Robert A. Moffitt, James P. Ziliak.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Moffitt, Robert A.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Ziliak, James P.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w27911.

NBER working paper series no. w27911

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

We examine trends in employment, earnings, and incomes over the last two decades in the United States, and how the safety net has responded to changing fortunes, including the shutdown of the economy in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The U.S. safety net is a patchwork of different programs providing in-kind as well as cash benefits and had many holes prior to the Pandemic. In addition, few of the programs are designed explicitly as automatic stabilizers. We show that the safety net response to employment losses in the Covid-19 Pandemic largely consists only of increased support from unemployment insurance and food assistance programs, which did not replace the lost income for many households. We discuss possible options to reform social assistance in America that may provide more robust income floors in times of economic downturns.

Notes:

Print version record

October 2020.