106. We first estimate a probit model for the probability of active search, as a more formal test on the relationship between benefit recipiency and active search (Table XVI). According to the estimation results, women and married workers are less likely to search actively. The relationship between search and education is a complex one, in the shape of an inverted-U: for low levels of education both variables are positively related, while the opposite is true for high levels (i.e. college and beyond). Interestingly, social assistance/support does not have a significant effect on active search, and neither do age (except for workers over 45 searching less actively) or registration with the Employment Office.

107. Regarding unemployment insurance benefits, workers who do not receive them search less than workers than do, on average. However, within this group, we need to differentiate between those who are registered and those who are not, since we just saw in Table XV that the latter group searches the least. When we do this we find that the difference in probability between workers who are currently receiving benefits and those who are not entitled, but are registered, is 8 percentage points, while the difference between those with unemployment insurance and those who are not entitled and not registered is 20 percentage points. In contrast, those entitled to benefits and having exhausted them are the ones searching the most. These results confirm the prima facie evidence presented in Table XV.

108. In order to check the extent to which these changes may be driving our results, we reestimate the previous model for 1996/99 and 2000 separately (see columns II and III). Not surprisingly, being registered at the Employment Office if negatively correlated with active search for 1996/99. As discussed above, this negative correlation is most likely due to the wording of the search question, and thus spurious. In fact, the result is exactly the opposite for 2000: registration with the Employment Office seems to be a good predictor for active search. It is reassuring to find that the behavioral differences between those who receive unemployment insurance (social assistance/support) and those who do not remain after splitting the sample. The same is true about the effect of demographic variables.

109. Having shown then that unemployment insurance recipients search more than nonrecipients, we turn now to the issue of their willingness to accept (any) job offers while under the benefit system. For this purpose, we use the information on preferences for future jobs available in the Labor Force Survey. We find that individuals currently receiving unemployment insurance exhibit a slightly stronger inclination for salaried jobs than other workers, while those not entitled to benefits or not registered appear to be somewhat more entrepreneurial (Table XVII). Registered workers with no unemployment insurance also seem to be more flexible, given the larger percentage of them who are willing to accept a part-time job, even though full-time employment is preferable. Moreover, it is interesting to notice the differences between those who are currently receiving unemployment insurance and those who did so in the past. The latter are the group with the largest share of 'any job/no preference' responses. All these pieces together (weakly) suggest the existence of a negative relationship between flexibility (interpreted as 'willingness to accept any job') and unemployment insurance recipiency.

110. An alternative way of getting at the issue of selectivity is to look at the outcome of the search process, meaning the quality of the job workers move into. Although the standard strategy for this kind of problem is to study wage differences between recipients and nonrecipients after re-employment, where higher wages are associated with better matches, 31