Giulia Giupponi, Bocconi University
When Income Effects are Large: Labor Supply Responses and the Value of Social Insurance Benefits
Abstract
She estimates the long-run income effect of social insurance benefits on individual labor supply. Using Italian administrative data on the universe of survivor insurance recipients, she implements a regression discontinuity design around a change in survivor insurance generosity based on the spouse’s death date. She finds that survivors largely offset the benefit loss with increases in labor supply. Labor force participation and program substitution are the main margins of adjustment. The large participation response to survivor benefit cuts suggests that the value of additional income in the widowhood state is high.
Giulia Giupponi is an Assistant Professor of Public Economics at Bocconi University and a CEPR Affiliate in the Labour and Public Economics groups. She was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies in 2019-2020. She earned a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2019.
Her research interests lie in the areas of labour and public economics, with a focus on the employment and welfare effects of social insurance and social security programs, and the impact of minimum wages on firm behaviour and distributional outcomes.
Her research interests lie in the areas of labour and public economics, with a focus on the employment and welfare effects of social insurance and social security programs, and the impact of minimum wages on firm behaviour and distributional outcomes.
Guilia holds an ERC Starting Grant for the project “Lifting Up the Working Poor (LIFT-UP)” (2026-2030).
You can read more about Guilia Giupponi here
CEBI contact: Søren Leth-Petersen