Dissatisfied with life, but having a good day: time-use and well-being of the unemployed

Andreas Knabe, Steffen Rätzel, Ronnie Schöb and Joachim Weimann
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ronnie Schoeb

No 2009/13, Discussion Papers from Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics

Abstract: We apply the Day Reconstruction Method to compare unemployed and employed people with respect to their subjective assessment of emotional affects, differences in the composition and duration of activities during the course of a day, and their self-reported life satisfaction. Employed persons are more satisfied with their life than the unemployed and report more positive feelings when engaged in similar activities. Weighting these activities with their duration shows, however, that average experienced utility does not differ between the two groups. Although the unemployed feel sadder when engaged in similar activities, they can compensate this by using the time the employed are at work in more enjoyable ways. Our finding that unemployment affects life satisfaction and experienced utility differently may be explained by the fact that people do not adjust their aspirations when becoming unemployed but face hedonic adaptation to changing life circumstances, triggered by the opportunity to use the time in a way that yields higher levels of satisfaction than working.

Keywords: Unemployment; happiness; life satisfaction; Day Reconstruction Method; experienced utility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J22 J60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Dissatisfied with Life but Having a Good Day: Time-use and Well-being of the Unemployed (2010)
Working Paper: Dissatisfied with Life, but Having a Good Day: Time-Use and Well-Being of the Unemployed (2009)
Working Paper: Dissatisfied with life, but having a good day- time-use and well-being of the unemployed (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:200913

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