Unemployment compensation finance and labor market rigidity

The systematic use of experience rating is an original feature of the U.S. unemployment benefits system. At first glance, experience rating does not appear to be a desirable choice for a lot of European labor markets, which are characterized by high firing costs. We provide a simple matching model of a rigid labor market that includes firing costs, temporary jobs and a minimum wage in order to analyze this issue. Our analysis leads us to argue that experience rating is likely to reduce unemployment and improve the welfare of low-skilled workers in France, and more generally for low-skilled workers in a typical, rigid Continental European labor market.