A key difference is that the cash payments in this study were unconditional, which is pivotal to the hypothesis being tested. Unemployment stops if you take a

A key difference is that the cash payments in this study were unconditional, which is pivotal to the hypothesis being tested. Unemployment stops if you take a new job. This increases the uncertainty and risk - why take a new job that might not work out and potentially pays less money than what unemployment pays? The risk is not worth the reward in this situation. Now if instead someone tells you that you are getting cash for 24 months regardless of whether you find a job or not, you are incentivized to find work as fast as possible because you get to keep the cash either way. If you find a job, great now you have extra money for savings, and are reducing risk and uncertainty, rather than increasing it.