Regional unemployment and norm-induced effects on life satisfaction
Regional unemployment and norm-induced effects on life satisfaction
While rising unemployment generally reduces people's happiness, researchers argue that there is a compensating social-norm effect for the unemployed individual, who might suffer less when it is more common to be unemployed. This empirical study rejects this thesis for German panel data, however, and finds that individual unemployment is even more hurtful when regional unemployment is higher. On the other hand, an extended model that separately considers individuals who feel stigmatised from living off public funds yields strong evidence that this group of people does in fact suffer less when the normative pressure to earn one's own living is lower. A comprehensive discussion reconciles these findings with the existing research and concludes that to find evidence for the often described social-norm effect it is worthwhile to analyse disutility associated with benefit receipts. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Individual unemployment, Labour market policies, Regional unemployment, Social benefits, Social norms, Well-being
1111-1141
Chadi, Adrian
9b86c34e-9340-465f-a4c0-492202a0958a
9 May 2013
Chadi, Adrian
9b86c34e-9340-465f-a4c0-492202a0958a
Chadi, Adrian
(2013)
Regional unemployment and norm-induced effects on life satisfaction.
Empirical Economics, 46 (3), .
(doi:10.1007/s00181-013-0712-7).
Abstract
While rising unemployment generally reduces people's happiness, researchers argue that there is a compensating social-norm effect for the unemployed individual, who might suffer less when it is more common to be unemployed. This empirical study rejects this thesis for German panel data, however, and finds that individual unemployment is even more hurtful when regional unemployment is higher. On the other hand, an extended model that separately considers individuals who feel stigmatised from living off public funds yields strong evidence that this group of people does in fact suffer less when the normative pressure to earn one's own living is lower. A comprehensive discussion reconciles these findings with the existing research and concludes that to find evidence for the often described social-norm effect it is worthwhile to analyse disutility associated with benefit receipts. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
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Accepted/In Press date: 13 February 2013
Published date: 9 May 2013
Keywords:
Individual unemployment, Labour market policies, Regional unemployment, Social benefits, Social norms, Well-being
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Local EPrints ID: 496053
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/496053
ISSN: 0377-7332
PURE UUID: 8ceaaa7f-df0e-4f88-b08d-8df494b21ac7
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Date deposited: 02 Dec 2024 17:43
Last modified: 17 Dec 2024 03:11
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Author:
Adrian Chadi
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