
Lecture 12: Other Social Insurance Programs
MIT economist Jonathan Gruber continues his Public Finance and Public Policy course (14.41, Fall 2024) by examining three social insurance programs beyond Social Security: unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and workers' compensation. He covers how each program is designed, financed, and targeted, and works through the economic tradeoffs involved in providing insurance against job loss, disability, and workplace injury, including the moral hazard concerns that shape benefit levels and eligibility rules. The seventy-seven minute lecture uses standard public finance tools, such as analyzing incentive effects and program financing, to compare how these three systems address different labor market risks. Gruber draws on empirical research and policy debates to explain why these programs are structured the way they are and what economic problems they aim to solve.