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Unemployment and life satisfaction: A cross-cultural comparison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Duncan Gallie  and
Helen Russell
Duncan Gallie
Affiliation:
Nuffield College(Oxford).
Helen Russell
Affiliation:
Nuffield College(Oxford).
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Abstract

The paper addresses the issue of the nature and determinants of variations between countries in the severity of the implications of unemployment for psychological well-being. It focuses on ten countries in the European Union over the period 1983 to 1994. It establishes that there are consistent differences between countries over time. It then examines a number of potential explanations, in particular relating to the level of unemployment, the social composition of unemployment, the strength of the work ethic in the society and the characteristics of welfare institutions. It concludes that such differences cannot be accounted for in terms of the level of unemployment or its composition in terms of age and sex. They are also unrelated to measures of employment commitment. Rather the severity of the impact of unemployment has to be understood in terms of the interaction between the characteristics of the welfare regime and the composition of the unemployed with respect to household position.

Le projet est d'analyser la nature et les déterminants des variations entre pays concernant la sévérité des implications du chômage sur le bien-etre psychologique. Les données portent sur dix pays de l'union europeenne entre 1983 et 1994. Des diff´erences, stables dans le temps, apparaissem bien entre pays. Les facteurs explicatifs possibles qui sont examines comprennent le niveau du chomage et la composition de la population frappee, la force de l'ethique du travail et les specificites nationales de l'Etat providence. Les deux premiers sont a exclure et le troisieme n'est pas decisif. En revanche la combinaison des dispositions du système de protection sociale et de la position du chômeur(se) dans l'unité ménage a un poids explicarif.

Die Untersuchung setzt sich zum Ziel, Beschaffenheit und Hauptfaktoren der Zänder spezifischen Abweichungen in puncto Folgen der Arbeitslosikgeit auf das psychologische Wohlbefinden zu analysieren. Die Zahlenwerte der Jahre 1983–1994 stammen aus zehn Landern der EG. Sie lassen die iiber die Jahre gleichbleibenden Unterschiede gut deutlich werden. AuBerdem wurden folgende Entscheidungskriterien in die Untersuchung eingeschlossenen: Stand der Arbeitslosigkeit, Zusammensetzung der betroffenen Bevölkerung, ethnischer Wert der Arbeit, nationale Besonderheiten des Wohlfahrtsstaates. Die ersten beiden Kriterien sind auszuschlieBen, und das dritte ist nicht entscheidend. Im Gegensatz dazu ist das Zusammenspiel von Sozialversicherung und Status der Arbeitslosen im Privathaushalt von groBem Gewicht für den Interpretationsansatz.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , November 1998 , pp. 248 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1998

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