Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/39770 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
Thünen-Series of Applied Economic Theory - Working Paper No. 97
Publisher: 
Universität Rostock, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, Rostock
Abstract: 
This study examines whether the distribution of aggregate unemployment by duration affects individual well-being. Two hypotheses are provided to explain how the shares of short-term (up to 3 months) and long-term (more than 1 year) unemployed people could affect the well-being of the employed and unemployed: The severity hypothesis and the flow hypothesis. Using data from almost 300,000 individuals from 11 EU countries, an ordered probit estimator is used to analyze the impact of the distribution of aggregate unemployment by duration on individual well-being. We find significant evidence in favor of both the severity and the flow hypotheses. Hence, the fear of losing (or not finding) a job is more detrimental when the prospect is to remain unemployed for a longer time. At some point, however, both the employed and unemployed adapt to unemployment at the macro level. Using an alternative specification that allows for a duration-specific risk of becoming/being unemployed, we arrive at similar conclusions. What seems to bother people is thus not just the risk of becoming/remaining unemployed, but more so the risk of being out of work for 4 to 12 months.
Subjects: 
unemployment
unemployment duration
life satisfaction
happiness
JEL: 
J64
I31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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