Elusive effects of unemployment on happiness

Petri Böckerman () and Pekka Ilmakunnas ()

Labor and Demography from EconWPA

Abstract: This paper explores the connection between unemployment and subjective well-being in Finland by using cross-sections for the years 1990, 1996 and 2000 from World Values Surveys. An unprecedented increase in the national unemployment rate (from 3 to 17 per cent) did not produce a drop in the mean level of subjective well-being. Experiencing unemployment personally reduces life satisfaction, but does not have a significant effect on happiness in ordered logit estimation. However, generalized ordered logit estimation reveals that being unemployed has a negative effect on happiness at lower happiness scores, but no significant effect at high happiness levels.

Keywords: happiness; unhappiness; life satisfaction; unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C30 J28 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-dcm and nep-lab
Date: 2005-04-19
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 16
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0504008

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