The effect of unemployment on social participation of spouses: evidence from plant closures in Germany

Lars Kunze and Nicolai Suppa ()

Empirical Economics, 2020, vol. 58, issue 2, No 17, 815-833

Abstract: Abstract This paper estimates the effect of an individual’s unemployment on the level of social participation of their spouse. Using German panel data, it is shown that unemployment has a strong negative effect on public social activities of both directly and indirectly affected spouses. Private social activities of either spouse, however, are only found to increase if the indirectly affected spouse is not working. Conflict prevention strategies or habituation may help to rationalise this finding. Our results imply that active labour market policies should account for spillover effects within couples and adopt a family perspective.

Keywords: Unemployment; Social participation; Plant closure; Entropy balancing; SOEP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: The Effect of Unemployment on Social Participation of Spouses: Evidence from Plant Closures in Germany (2017)
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DOI: 10.1007/s00181-018-1542-4

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