Staying on the dole can be good for you

I have to confess, I always wanted to get unemployment benefits just to see what it's like. There has always been a stigma to those on the dole, including that it breeds laziness. But that may not be the case:

"New research from Raj Chetty, a young Berkeley economist, suggests that moral hazard may not be why more generous benefits seem to lead to more unemployment. Chetty realized that unemployment benefits do not merely pay people to stay out of work; they also protect them from having to rush into an unsuitable job. It is nothing to celebrate if unemployed engineers cannot afford to spend three months finding a job for which they are qualified but are forced to work as real estate agents to put food on the table. A longer gap between jobs is sometimes preferable"