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Partnership, Gender Roles and the Well-Being Cost of Unemployment

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Andreas Knabe
  • Ronnie Schöb
  • Joachim Weimann

Abstract

We use the differences between life satisfaction and emotional well-being of employed and unemployed persons to analyze how a person’s employment status affects cognitive well-being. Our results show that unemployment has a negative impact on cognitive, but not on affective well-being, which we interpret as a loss in identity utility. Living in a partnership strengthens the loss in identity utility of men, but weakens that of women. Unemployment of a person’s partner reduces the identity loss of unemployed men, but raises it for women. These results suggest that the unemployed’s feeling of identity is affected by traditional gender roles, while this does not seem to be the case for the affective part of their subjective well-being.

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Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number 3932.

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Date of creation: 2012
Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3932
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More information through EDIRC

Keywords: unemployment; happiness; life satisfaction; Day Reconstruction Method; identity; partnership; gender roles;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
  • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General
  • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Andrew E. Clark & Yannis Georgellis, 2002. "Unemployment Alters the Set-Point for Life Satisfaction," Public Policy Discussion Papers 02-16, Economics and Finance Section, School of Social Sciences, Brunel University.
  2. Andrew E. Clark, 2003. "Unemployment as a Social Norm: Psychological Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 289-322, April.
  3. Adrian Chadi, 2014. "Regional unemployment and norm-induced effects on life satisfaction," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 1111-1141, May.
  4. Nattavudh Powdthavee, 2003. "Are there Regional Variations in the Psychological Cost of Unemployment in South Africa?," Labor and Demography 0310006, EconWPA, revised 28 Oct 2003.
  5. Andreas Knabe & Steffen Rätzel & Ronnie Schöb & Joachim Weimann, 2010. "Dissatisfied with Life but Having a Good Day: Time-use and Well-being of the Unemployed," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(547), pages 867-889, 09.
  6. repec:pri:cepsud:125krueger is not listed on IDEAS
  7. Michael A. Shields & Stephen Wheatley Price, 2005. "Exploring the economic and social determinants of psychological well-being and perceived social support in England," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 168(3), pages 513-537.
  8. Daniel Kahneman & Alan B. Krueger & David Schkade & Norbert Schwarz & Arthur A. Stone, 2006. "Would You Be Happier If You Were Richer? A Focusing Illusion," Working Papers 77, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
  9. Michael Shields & Stephen Wheatley Price & Mark Wooden, 2009. "Life satisfaction and the economic and social characteristics of neighbourhoods," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(2), pages 421-443, April.
  10. Shields, Michael A. & Wheatley Price, Stephen, 2001. "Exploring the Economic and Social Determinants of Psychological and Psychosocial Health," IZA Discussion Papers 396, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  11. Scutella, Rosanna & Wooden, Mark, 2008. "The effects of household joblessness on mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 88-100, July.
  12. Adrian Chadi, "undated". "Regional Unemployment and Norm-Induced Effects on Life Satisfaction," Working Papers 201173, Institute of Spatial and Housing Economics, Munster Universitary.
  13. Winkelmann, Liliana & Winkelmann, Rainer, 1998. "Why Are the Unemployed So Unhappy? Evidence from Panel Data," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 65(257), pages 1-15, February.
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Cited by:

  1. Maike Luhmann & Pola Weiss & Georg Hosoya & Michael Eid, 2014. "Honey, I got Fired! A Longitudinal Dyadic Analysis of the Effect of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction in Couples," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 724, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  2. Ronnie Schöb, 2013. "Unemployment and Identity," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 59(1), pages 149-180, March.

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