RSSE: Ewa Gałecka-Burdziak (SGH Warsaw School of Economics, LCC Australia) Moral Hazard among the Employed: Evidence from Regression Discontinuity

It is our pleasure that Ewa Gałecka-Burdziak (SGH Warsaw School of Economics, LCC Australia) will present on Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 12:45 in room RB437 about the topic “Moral Hazard among the Employed: Evidence from Regression Discontinuity”.

Registration is not required and anyone who would like to attend is warmly invited.

It is also possible to participate online via MS Teams at this link. In case of any connection issues, please contact klara.kaliskova@vse.cz.

ABSTRACT: We exploit policy discontinuities in Poland’s unemployment insurance to examine the causal effect of changes to both benefit durations and levels. Using a regression discontinuity approach, we uncover three findings: (1) Higher benefit levels distort employment more than benefit extensions. (2) Benefit durations and levels interact: Longer durations substantially increase the distortionary effect of more generous payments. (3) Higher payments increase the transition of employed workers into unemployment. We develop a model of optimal unemployment insurance that accounts for moral hazard among both employed and unemployed workers. Notably, for level increases, distortionary costs are larger among the employed than unemployed.

BIO: Ewa Gałecka-Burdziak is an Associate Professor at SGH Warsaw School of Economics. She is also a Research Affiliate at Life Course Centre (Australia) and Prague University of Economics and Business (Czechia). She served as a Principal Investigator in the projects financed by National Science Centre, NAWA, CERGE-EI Foundation and OECD. She has received the START scholarship founded by Foundation for Polish Science, Minister of Science and Higher Education scholarship for young scientists (2020-2022) and Dekaban-Liddle Senior Fellowship (University of Glasgow). She executed research stays and study visits in Universidad de Sevilla, Universidad Pablo de Olavide en Sevilla, Universidad de Huelva, RWI Berlin, University of Glasgow, University of Wollongong, University of Bologna. She has published in Review of Economic Studies, Technological and Economic Development of Economy, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Economic Modelling, Journal of Applied Economics. Her research spans labour economics, social policy, economics of crime, with particular focus on unemployment insurance.