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Hartz and Minds: Happiness Effects of Reforming an Employment Agency

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  • Max Deter

    (Bergische Universität Wuppertal)

Abstract

Since the labor market reforms around 2005, known as the Hartz reforms, Germany has experienced declining unemployment rates. However, little is known about the reforms’ effect on individual life satisfaction of unemployed workers. This study applies difference-in-difference estimations and finds a decrease in life satisfaction after the reforms that is more pronounced for male unemployed in west Germany. The effect is driven by income and income satisfaction, but not by the unemployment rate. Also unemployed persons who exogenously lost their jobs are affected by the reforms. In line with the structure of the reforms, the effect is stronger on long-term and involuntarily unemployed persons.

Suggested Citation

  • Max Deter, 2021. "Hartz and Minds: Happiness Effects of Reforming an Employment Agency," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1819-1838, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:22:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10902-020-00297-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-020-00297-7
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    Cited by:

    1. Deter, Max & Lange, Martin, 2023. "Are the supporters of socialism the losers of capitalism? Conformism in East Germany and transition success," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Trinh, Nhat An, 2021. "The effect of social benefit reform on educational inequality," SocArXiv kpxhf, Center for Open Science.
    3. Dominik Buttler, 2022. "Employment Status and Well-Being Among Young Individuals. Why Do We Observe Cross-Country Differences?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 409-437, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment; Hartz reforms; Happiness; SOEP;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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