About this Event
Dear Academic and Corporate Peers,
We are pleased to invite you to the upcoming session of the Research Seminar Series at the Asia School of Business, featuring Professor Kurt See from the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Session Title:
The Implications of Labor Market Heterogeneity for Unemployment Insurance Design
with Serdar Birinci
Event Details
📅 Date: Wednesday, 14 October 2026
🕧 Time: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
📍 Venue: CR-W2-04, Asia School of Business
💻 Format: Hybrid (In-person & Zoom)
Zoom Details
Meeting ID: 987 8764 1304
Passcode: 170765
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://asb-my.zoom.us/j/98787641304?pwd=CZEBplHmSHlLpPYCJoKzDAOHh2e8Bh.1
📝 Register today!
About the Seminar
How should unemployment insurance be designed when workers differ in their earnings, wealth, and experience with unemployment?
This seminar examines how differences across workers affect unemployment insurance (UI) eligibility, take-up, and replacement rates. Using individual-level data, the study documents substantial variation in how workers access and use UI depending on their economic circumstances and unemployment duration.
The authors then incorporate these findings into a model that combines an incomplete-markets framework with a frictional labor market. They find that accounting for labor market heterogeneity and endogenous UI take-up leads to substantially more generous optimal UI policies.
The research also highlights an important consideration in UI design: workers who choose to take up UI may value the insurance most, and the welfare gains from providing greater insurance to these workers can outweigh the costs associated with increased take-up.
About the Speaker
Kurt See is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore. His research interests include macroeconomics, labor economics, and public economics.
Prior to joining NUS, he was a Principal Researcher and Senior Economist at the Bank of Canada and has also held positions at the University of Toronto and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota in 2019.
His research has been published in leading journals including the Journal of Monetary Economics, Review of Economic Studies, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, and Journal of Public Economics.
Open to academics, students, and corporate peers — we look forward to seeing you there!
Event venue & nearby stays
Asia School of Business (ASB) Academic, 11 Jalan Dato Onn, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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