Unemployment Insurance benefit durations were extended during the Great Recession, reaching 99 weeks for most recipients. The extensions were rolled back and eventually terminated by the end of 2013. Using matched CPS data from 2008-2014, we estimate the effect of extended benefits on unemployment exits separately during the earlier period of benefit expansion and the later period of
rollback. In both periods, we find little or no effect on job-finnding but a reduction
in labor force exits due to benefit availability. We estimate that the rollbacks
reduced the labor force participation rate by about 0.1 percentage point in early
2014.