Heterogeneous Relationships between Employment Insurance Receipt and Job Search

I explore the heterogeneous relationships between Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) program and job search intensity before, during and after the recent financial crisis among different subgroups of workers in Canada. I find a significant, positive relationship between job search intensity and EI benefits. The positive relationship between EI benefits and job search hours is largest for women, while the positive relationship between EI benefits and job search expenditures is largest for among workers from poor households. EI recipients experience longer unemployment durations than non-recipients, but the unemployment durations for EI recipients during the recession are shorter than before the recession. My findings have important implications for policy-makers wishing to target EI benefits among populations where such benefits will have the greatest impact.