IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gpe/wpaper/7747.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A multidimensional approach to worklessness: a matter of opportunities, social factors and individual’s idiosyncrasies

Author

Listed:
  • Cagliesi, Maria
  • Hawkes, Denise
  • De Vita, Riccardo

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to adopt the principles of labour economics, behavioural economics (BE) and social economics (SE) to explain an agent's functioning over employment, non-employment and across various inactivity categories in the labour market. An empirical methodological approach has been adopted, where data from the British Household Panel Survey (2009) has been collected to formulate two types of models: the first type explaining non-employment and employment between genders, the second type investigating the subset of non-employed people and different categories of non-employment (such as employment (unemployment, students, disabled, early retired and carers), differentiating for gender and age characteristics. We found that labour market opportunities, choices and achievements are all affected by the interrelations and interactions of individual's demographic and psychological characteristics (such as age, gender, heuristic, perceptions, beliefs, attitude, goals and ambitions) with external factors (such as geographical, socio-cultural and economic conditions). This study makes a unique contribution to labour economics as we abandon the traditional welfare approach and use a more general framework of capabilities and refined functioning (proposed by Amartya Sen) to interpret how different types of constraints - ranging from socioeconomic conditions and environmental background to specific features of individual processes of choices and decision making - affect preferences and functionings. The influences of ``under-employment'' and ``career markers'' will also be evaluated in the context of this study.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Cagliesi, Maria & Hawkes, Denise & De Vita, Riccardo, 2012. "A multidimensional approach to worklessness: a matter of opportunities, social factors and individual’s idiosyncrasies," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 7747, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
  • Handle: RePEc:gpe:wpaper:7747
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/7747/1/Prelim-Schedule-5-15-12c.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lorenzo Cappellari & Konstantinos Tatsiramos, 2010. "Friends’ Networks and Job Finding Rates," DISCE - Quaderni dell'Istituto di Economia dell'Impresa e del Lavoro ieil0059, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    2. Sanjeev Goyal, 2007. "Introduction to Connections: An Introduction to the Economics of Networks," Introductory Chapters, in: Connections: An Introduction to the Economics of Networks, Princeton University Press.
    3. Dessi, Roberta & Zhao, Xiaojian, 2011. "Self-Esteem, Shame and Personal Motivation," TSE Working Papers 10-191, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Dec 2013.
    4. Khan, Linda J. & Morrow, Paula C., 1991. "Objective and subjective underemployment relationships to job satisfaction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 211-218, May.
    5. Daniel Kahneman & Alan B. Krueger, 2006. "Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 3-24, Winter.
    6. George A. Akerlof, 1980. "A Theory of Social Custom, of which Unemployment may be One Consequence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 749-775.
    7. Tania Burchardt & Julian Le Grand, 2002. "Constraint and Opportunity: Identifying Voluntary Non-Employment," CASE Papers case55, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    8. Tania Burchardt & Julian Le Grand, 2002. "Constraint and Opportunity: Identifying Voluntary Non-Employment," CASE Papers 055, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    9. Allan Little, 2007. "Inactivity And Labour Market Attachment In Britain," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 54(1), pages 19-54, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Glitz, Albrecht, 2017. "Coworker networks in the labour market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 218-230.
    2. Ortrud Lessmann & Jean-Michel Bonvin, 2011. "Job-satisfaction in the Broader Framework of the Capability Approach," management revue. Socio-economic Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 22(1), pages 84-99.
    3. Zenou, Yves & Patacchini, Eleonora & Liu, Xiaodong, 2013. "Peer Effects: Social Multiplier or Social Norms?," CEPR Discussion Papers 9366, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Masson, Torsten & Leßmann, Ortrud, 2012. "Nachhaltigkeitsindikatoren und Capabilities: Anknüpfungspunkte aus der deutschen Nachhaltigkeitsforschung," UFZ Discussion Papers 07/2012, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    5. Baddeley, Michelle & Parkinson, Sophia, 2012. "Group decision-making: An economic analysis of social influence and individual difference in experimental juries," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 558-573.
    6. Jackson, Matthew O. & Zenou, Yves, 2015. "Games on Networks," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications,, Elsevier.
    7. Christine Le Clainche & Sandy Tubeuf, 2016. "Nudging, intervening or rewarding," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 15(2), pages 170-189, May.
    8. Marco Guerrazzi & Ilham Ksebi, 2019. "Measuring Unemployment by Means of Official Data and Administrative Records: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives," QUADERNI DI ECONOMIA DEL LAVORO, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(110), pages 17-49.
    9. Andrea Galeotti & Luca Paolo Merlino, 2014. "Endogenous Job Contact Networks," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1201-1226, November.
    10. Karen Hofmann & Dominik Schori & Thomas Abel, 2013. "Self-Reported Capabilities Among Young Male Adults in Switzerland: Translation and Psychometric Evaluation of a German, French and Italian Version of a Closed Survey Instrument," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 723-738, November.
    11. Richard Cookson, 2005. "QALYs and the capability approach," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(8), pages 817-829, August.
    12. Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2012. "Juvenile Delinquency and Conformism," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-31.
    13. Zenou, Yves & Patacchini, Eleonora & Liu, Xiaodong, 2011. "Peer Effects in Education, Sport, and Screen Activities: Local Aggregate or Local Average?," CEPR Discussion Papers 8477, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Greco, Giulia & Skordis-Worrall, Jolene & Mkandawire, Bryan & Mills, Anne, 2015. "What is a good life? Selecting capabilities to assess women's quality of life in rural Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 69-78.
    15. Cristina Borra & Francisco Gómez-García, 2016. "Wellbeing at Work and the Great Recession: The Effect of Others’ Unemployment," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 1939-1962, October.
    16. Liu, Xiaodong & Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves, 2014. "Endogenous peer effects: local aggregate or local average?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 39-59.
    17. D'Agata, Antonio, 2009. "Measures of freedom," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 209-214, January.
    18. Germain, Antoine, 2023. "Basic income versus fairness: redistribution with inactive agents," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2023022, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    19. Fluhrer, Svenja & Kraehnert, Kati, 2022. "Sitting in the same boat: Subjective well-being and social comparison after an extreme weather event," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    20. Abel Brodeur, 2012. "Smoking, Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Smoking Bans," Working Papers halshs-00664269, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    worklessness; secondary data;

    JEL classification:

    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gpe:wpaper:7747. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nadine Edwards (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/pegreuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.