The Causes and Consequences of Early-Adult Unemployment: Evidence from Cohort Data

Andrew Clark and Anthony Lepinteur

No 12430, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We here use the employment-history data from the British Cohort Study to calculate an individual's total experience of unemployment from the time they left school up to age 30. We show that this experience is negatively correlated with the life satisfaction that the individual reports at age 30, so that past unemployment scars. We also identify the childhood circumstances and family background that predict this adult unemployment experience. Educational achievement and good behaviour at age 16 both reduce adult unemployment experience, and emotional health at age 16 is a particularly strong predictor of unemployment experience for women. Both boys and girls reproduce on average their parents' unemployment, so that adult unemployment experience is transmitted between generations. We uncover evidence of a social-norm effect: children from less-advantaged backgrounds both experience more adult unemployment but are less affected by it in well-being.

Keywords: unemployment; life satisfaction; habituation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J21 J63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2019-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hap, nep-lab and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (49)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2019, 166, 107-124

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Related works:
Journal Article: The causes and consequences of early-adult unemployment: Evidence from cohort data (2019)
Working Paper: The Causes and Consequences of Early-Adult Unemployment: Evidence from Cohort Data (2019)
Working Paper: The causes and consequences of early-adult unemployment: Evidence from cohort data (2019)
Working Paper: The causes and consequences of early-adult unemployment: Evidence from cohort data (2019)
Working Paper: The Causes and Consequences of Early-Adult Unemployment: Evidence from Cohort Data (2019)
Working Paper: The Causes and Consequences of Early-Adult Unemployment: Evidence from Cohort Data (2019)
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