IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/shf/wpaper/2018007.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Unhappiness in unemployment – is it the same for everyone?

Author

Listed:
  • Simonetta Longhi

    () (University of Reading)

  • Alita Nandi

    () (University of Essex)

  • Mark Bryan

    () (University of Sheffield)

  • Sara Connolly

    () (University of East Anglia)

  • Cigdem Gedikli

    (University of Hertfordshire)

Abstract

Many studies have shown that there is a general tendency for men’s subjective wellbeing to be more badly affected by unemployment when compared to women, although the extent varies across countries. The existing literature notes the gender differences and offers possible explanations, but does not formally compare competing hypotheses. We analyse whether gender differences in life satisfaction associated with the experience of unemployment can be attributed to degrees of specialisation in the labour market, differences in the types of work undertaken by men and women, differences in personality traits, work identity or gender norms. We find that it is not all, but some, women who suffer less than men when experiencing a transition into unemployment. The experience of unemployment for women is differentiated by pay, work identity and, most powerfully, gender attitudes.

Suggested Citation

  • Simonetta Longhi & Alita Nandi & Mark Bryan & Sara Connolly & Cigdem Gedikli, 2018. "Unhappiness in unemployment – is it the same for everyone?," Working Papers 2018007, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:shf:wpaper:2018007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/economics/research/serps/articles/2018_007
    File Function: First version, May 2018
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Schurer, Stefanie, 2012. "The stability of big-five personality traits," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 11-15.
    3. John Gathergood, 2013. "An Instrumental Variable Approach To Unemployment, Psychological Health And Social Norm Effects," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(6), pages 643-654, June.
    4. Martin Binder & Alex Coad, 2015. "Unemployment impacts differently on the extremes of the distribution of a comprehensive well-being measure," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(8), pages 619-627, May.
    5. Schober, Pia & Scott, Jacqueline, 2012. "Maternal Employment and Gender Role Attitudes: Dissonance Among British Men and Women in the Transition to Parenthood," EconStor Open Access Articles, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 514-530.
    6. Andrew E. Clark & Ed Diener & Yannis Georgellis & Richard E. Lucas, 2008. "Lags And Leads in Life Satisfaction: a Test of the Baseline Hypothesis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(529), pages 222-243, June.
    7. Roberts, Jennifer & Hodgson, Robert & Dolan, Paul, 2011. "“It's driving her mad”: Gender differences in the effects of commuting on psychological health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1064-1076.
    8. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    9. Nattavudh Powdthavee, 2007. "Are there Geographical Variations in the Psychological Cost of Unemployment in South Africa?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 80(3), pages 629-652, February.
    10. Rainer Winkelmann, 2009. "Unemployment, Social Capital, and Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 421-430, August.
    11. Schmitz, Hendrik, 2011. "Why are the unemployed in worse health? The causal effect of unemployment on health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 71-78, January.
    12. Brown, Sarah & Taylor, Karl, 2014. "Household finances and the ‘Big Five’ personality traits," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 197-212.
    13. Nick Carroll, 2007. "Unemployment and Psychological Well-being," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 83(262), pages 287-302, September.
    14. Man Yee Kan, 2008. "Does gender trump money? Housework hours of husbands and wives in Britain," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 22(1), pages 45-66, March.
    15. Green, Francis, 2011. "Unpacking the misery multiplier: How employability modifies the impacts of unemployment and job insecurity on life satisfaction and mental health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 265-276, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender attitudes; life satisfaction; unemployment; wellbeing;

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:shf:wpaper:2018007. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Jacob Holmes). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/desheuk.html .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.