The March 2021 American Rescue Plan … extended a program that added $300 each week to a state’s standard [unemployment] benefit. A separate part of the bill expanded eligibility … to workers such as the self-employed.
The opportunity to compare states that kept both benefits in place to those that canceled one or both provided a natural economic experiment.
States that ended the benefits sooner saw their jobless rates among prime-age workers fall by [almost a full percentage point].
