LuduviceTruss-Williams_UI

Overview

This repository contains the code and data associated with the FRBC’s Economic Commentary “How Insured Are Workers Against Unemployment? Unemployment Insurance and the Distribution of Liquid Wealth” by André Victor D. Luduvice and Anaya Truss-Williams.

The data and code in this replication package implement the data transformations and calculations from three data sources (U.S. Census SIPP, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Department of Labor via Haver Analytics) using R. The Master script and Transformation script run the replication package and implement all data transformation and calculations required for the analysis. The Figures and Appendix scripts generate the figures and tables.

Recommended Citation

Luduvice, André Victor D., and Anaya Truss-Williams. 2024. "How Insured Are Workers Against Unemployment? Unemployment Insurance and the Distribution of Liquid Wealth." Economic Commentary, no. 2024-16 (October). https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-ec-202416.

Contents

• Charts and Tables:

  • These folders will be automatically generated by the R code and will house the output figures and tables.

• Data:

  • BLS_CPI-U_1947_2024.csv: CPI-U index to be merged with the SIPP 2018-23 data.
  • Haver_LF_data.xlsx: Labor force and continued claims data used in figures
  • pu2018.csv: SIPP 2018. Raw data used in the analysis.
  • pu2019.csv: SIPP 2019. Raw data used in the analysis.
  • pu2020.csv: SIPP 2020. Raw data used in the analysis.
  • pu2021.csv: SIPP 2021. Raw data used in the analysis.
  • pu2022.csv: SIPP 2022. Raw data used in the analysis.
  • pu2023.csv: SIPP 2023. Raw data used in the analysis.

• Scripts:

  • AL_AT_2024_Replication_Master.R: master script for running the replication package.
  • AL_AT_2024_Replication_Figures_UR.R: script to generate Figure 1.
  • AL_AT_2024_Replication_Transformations_UI.R: script to implement all data transformation and calculations required for the analysis of the microdata.
  • AL_AT_2024_Replication_Figures.R: script to generate Figures 2 to 3 of the main text and Figure 4 of the Appendix.
  • AL_AT_2024_Replication_Appendix.R: script to generate Tables A.1-A.3.

Data Availability

All data are publicly available.

This Commentary uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018-2022 waves of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Note: the SIPP data file is not provided.

• Data for the SIPP can be freely downloaded from the links provided below. Save the files in the directory as /Data/pu20XX.csv.
  • https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/sipp/data/datasets/2018/pu2018_csv.zip
  • https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/sipp/data/datasets/2019/pu2019_csv.zip
  • https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/sipp/data/datasets/2020/pu2020_csv.zip
  • https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/sipp/data/datasets/2021/pu2021_csv.zip
  • https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/sipp/data/datasets/2022/pu2022_csv.zip
  • https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/sipp/data/datasets/2023/pu2023_csv.zip

This Commentary uses raw data from the BLS. The raw data is the seasonally adjusted CPI-U index, series ID: CUSR0000SA0. Data can be freely downloaded from https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0&output. Change output options to include years 1947 - 2024, and the "Original Data Value" (Column Format) view of the data. Note: the raw CPI-U index data file is provided in the Data folder as BLS_CPI-U_1947_2024.xlsx and was extracted on July 11, 2024.

This Commentary uses aggregated data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (DOLETA) gathered via Haver Analytics. The raw continued claims and labor force levels data can also be retrieved freely from the links provided below. Note: the unemployment rate, continued claims, and labor force data are provided in the Data folder in the file Haver_LF_Data.xlsx. This is shared with permission.

• Labor force levels: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11000000&output
• Overall continued claims: https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/claims.asp

This Commentary requires an API key to retrieve data from the FRED database used in the recession shading routine in script AL_AT_2024_Replication_Transformations_UR.R. A key can be requested at https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.