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The Effect of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction: A Cross-National Comparison Between Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States

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  • Wen-Hao Chen

    (Statistics Canada)

  • Feng Hou

    (Statistics Canada)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of unemployment on life satisfaction from a comparative perspective. It also tests whether the link between unemployment and life satisfaction is moderated or reinforced by contextual unemployment across regions within a country—either through a negative spillover or a positive social-norm effect, or both. The results suggest that noticeable non-pecuniary costs are associated with unemployment in the four countries studied. Cross-national differences also emerged in the impact of the moderating factors. Regional unemployment is a strong moderating factor of own unemployment in Canada and to a lesser extent in the United States; the effect is ambiguous in the United Kingdom and exacerbating in Germany. The results also support a negative spillover effect of regional unemployment on the employed in the United States and Germany, no spillover effect in the United Kingdom and, surprisingly, a positive overall spillover effect in Canada. Sensitivity testing further revealed that this Canadian anomaly was a phenomenon mainly in Atlantic Canada, not across the whole country.

Suggested Citation

  • Wen-Hao Chen & Feng Hou, 2019. "The Effect of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction: A Cross-National Comparison Between Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 14(4), pages 1035-1058, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:14:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s11482-018-9638-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11482-018-9638-8
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    2. Akay, Alpaslan & Karabulut, Gökhan & Yilmaz, Levent, 2021. "Life Satisfaction, Pro-Activity, and Employment," GLO Discussion Paper Series 784, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
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    4. Claudiu-Ionuţ Popîrlan & Irina-Valentina Tudor & Constantin-Cristian Dinu & Gabriel Stoian & Cristina Popîrlan & Daniela Dănciulescu, 2021. "Hybrid Model for Unemployment Impact on Social Life," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(18), pages 1-19, September.
    5. Raufhon Salahodjaev & Barno Abdullaeva & Shakhnoza Tosheva & Arletta Isaeva, 2021. "Female Parliamentarians and the Distribution of National Happiness," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 1571-1585, August.
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    7. Rendra Gustriansyah & Juhaini Alie & Nazori Suhandi, 2023. "Modeling the number of unemployed in South Sumatra Province using the exponential smoothing methods," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1725-1737, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment; Subjective well-being; Employment insecurity; Social norm;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

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