2009: “Guaranteed Minimum Income and Unemployment Duration in France," Labour Economics 16

In this article, we use data from the European Community Household Panel to evaluate the impact of a French guaranteed income program, the RMI, on the the hazard out of unem-ployment. Self-selection into the program is corrected using a multivariate duration model developed by Abbring and van den Berg (2003). We find that RMI receipt has a strong negative impact during the first months of program participation, but that this disincentive effect quickly falls to insignificant levels after six months. Household structure also ap-pears to be an important determinant of the importance of the adverse effect of program participation