The Emotional Timeline of Unemployment: Anticipation, Reaction, and Adaptation

Christian von Scheve (), Frederike Esche () and Jürgen Schupp
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Christian von Scheve: Freie Universität Berlin
Frederike Esche: Humboldt University Berlin

No 7654, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Unemployment continues to be one of the major challenges in industrialized societies. Aside from its economic dimensions and societal repercussions, questions concerning the individual experience of unemployment have recently attracted increasing attention. Although many studies have documented the detrimental effects of unemployment for subjective well-being, they overwhelmingly focus on life satisfaction as the cognitive dimension of well-being. Little is known about the emotional antecedents and consequences of unemployment. We thus investigate the impact of unemployment on emotional well-being by analyzing the frequency with which specific emotions are experienced in anticipation of and reaction to job loss. Using longitudinal data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and fixed effects regressions, we find that becoming unemployed leads to more frequent experiences of unpleasant emotions only in the short run and that adaptation occurs more rapidly as compared to life satisfaction. Contrary to existing studies, we find decreases in emotional well-being but not in life satisfaction in anticipation of unemployment.

Keywords: life satisfaction; well-being; emotions; unemployment; SOEP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 D63 J17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2013-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Forthcoming - published in: Journal of Happiness Studies, 2017, 18(4), 1231-1254.

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Emotional Timeline of Unemployment: Anticipation, Reaction, and Adaptation (2017)
Working Paper: The Emotional Timeline of Unemployment: Anticipation, Reaction, and Adaptation (2013)
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