Does Individualistic Culture Lower the Well-Being of the Unemployed? Evidence from Europe

Malgorzata Mikucka

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2014, vol. 15, issue 3, 673-691

Abstract: The paper tests whether the well-being cost of own unemployment is higher in individualistic countries and among persons with more individualistic orientations. I consider two dimensions of individualism: family support and self-reliance. I adopt a multilevel regression methodology on data of the European Values Study (2008) for 42 European countries. The results confirm that in Europe individualism correlates with higher well-being cost of own unemployment. Specifically, the relationship between unemployment and well-being is moderated by the family support norm. Its effect size is substantial, similar to the effect of country unemployment rate. This paper is the first one to establish in a comparative context that the well-being cost of own unemployment is higher in individualistic countries. It is also the first one to investigate the mechanisms behind this regularity. In contrast to the theoretical predictions, the importance of personal orientations is much weaker than the one of normative factors. Consistently with previous literature, the results suggest that the support among family members depends more on social norms than on individual values. Copyright The Author(s) 2014

Keywords: Subjective well-being; Happiness; Life satisfaction; Unemployment; Family support; Self-reliance; Social norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10902-013-9445-8

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