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Men without work: Why are they so unhappy in the US compared to other places?

Author

Listed:
  • Sergio Pinto

    (University of Maryland)

  • Carol Graham

    (The Brookings Institution)

Abstract

The global economy is full of paradoxes. Despite progress in technology, reducing poverty, and increasing life expectancy, the poorest states lag behind, and there is increasing inequality and anomie in the wealthiest ones. A key driver of such unhappiness in advanced countries is the decline in the status and wages of low-skilled labor. A related feature is the increase in prime-aged males (and to a lesser extent women) simply dropping out of the labor force, particularly in the U.S. This same group is over-represented in the “deaths of despair.†There is frustration among this same cohort in Europe and it is reflected in voting trends in both contexts. Prime-aged males out of the labor force in the U.S. are the least hopeful and most stressed and angry compared to the same group in other regions, including the Middle East. Our aim is to better understand this cohort as part of a broader need to rethink our growth models and to explore policies that encourage the participation of able workers in the new global economy and can provide incentives for community involvement and other forms of engagement for those who can no longer work.

Suggested Citation

  • Sergio Pinto & Carol Graham, 2019. "Men without work: Why are they so unhappy in the US compared to other places?," Working Papers 2019-016, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:hka:wpaper:2019-016
    Note: MIP
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    File URL: http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Pinto_Graham_2019_men-without-work-unhappy.pdf
    File Function: First version, March, 2019
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melani Cammett & Nisreen Salti, 2018. "Popular grievances in the Arab region: evaluating explanations for discontent in the lead-up to the uprisings," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 64-96, January.
    2. Carol Graham & Sergio Pinto, 2019. "Unequal hopes and lives in the USA: optimism, race, place, and premature mortality," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 665-733, April.
    3. Amin, Magdi & Assaad, Ragui & al-Baharna, Nazar & Dervis, Kemal & Desai, Raj M. & Dhillon, Navtej S. & Galal, Ahmed & Ghanem, Hafez & Graham, Carol & Kaufmann, Daniel, 2012. "After the Spring: Economic Transitions in the Arab World," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199924929.
    4. Efstratia Arampatzi & Martijn Burger & Elena Ianchovichina & Tina Röhricht & Ruut Veenhoven, 2018. "Unhappy Development: Dissatisfaction With Life on the Eve of the Arab Spring," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(s1), pages 80-113, October.
    5. Alan B. Krueger, 2017. "Where Have All the Workers Gone? An Inquiry into the Decline of the U.S. Labor Force Participation Rate," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 48(2 (Fall)), pages 1-87.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Men without work: Why are they so unhappy in the US compared to other places?
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2019-04-10 14:00:51

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Graham, Carol & Pinto, Sergio, 2021. "The geography of desperation in America: Labor force participation, mobility, place, and well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    2. Nesreen Nasser & Huda Fakhroo, 2021. "An Investigation of the Self-Perceived Well-Being Determinants: Empirical Evidence From Qatar," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, April.
    3. Carol Graham & Sergio Pinto, 2019. "Men without work: A global well-being and ill-being comparison," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 464-464, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    well-being; happiness; Inequality; gender; unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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