UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PAYMENTS AS A SEARCH SUBSIDY: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS

This paper examines the consequences of a change in unemployment insurance payments. Most previous works on this topic have utilized a job search model to predict that an increase in unemployment insurance payments will lead to an increase in the expected duration of unemployment. It is shown in the paper that this conclusion rests on two assumptions of dubious validity. When these assumptions are replaced by more reasonable ones significantly different predictions are obtained. For example, an increase in unemployment insurance payments is predicted to reduce the number of long term unemployed.     

An investigation of youths' attributions for unemployment and their political attitudes

This study investigated some hypotheses concerning the determinants of attributions for unemployment and the psychological consequences of unemployment in a randomly selected sample of 204 male school leavers. There was weak evidence for the hypothesis that the unemployed make more external attributions for unemployment, but none showing them to make less internal attributions. There was weak evidence that political party preference was related to internal and external attributions, and stronger evidence that a general tendency to see life as determined by chance was linked to external attributions. The unemployed were found to be more likely to support violent political action, to support the Labour Party, and to believe chance controlled their lives. Finally, external attributions were seen as more important than internal ones by all respondents. The results suggest that other factors, e.g. the mass media, may be influential in determining the nature of attributions and this is interpreted in the context of Moscovici's social representation theory.     

Technical-Professional Unemployment: Middle-class Adaptability to Personal Crisis*

Previous research generally indicates that unemployment is damaging to self-esteem and morale with attendant economic deprivations. Research among the middleclass unemployed is quite rare and is inconclusive as to the specific impact of unemployment on members of this stratum. In this study, interviews with one hundred unemployed male technical-professionals during the aerospace-defense-electronics recession of early 1972 revealed that for many, unemployment was less stressful than expected. The expression of a positive attitude toward job loss by 48 percent of the sample became a subject of special interest. The reason most frequently given for having a positive attitude toward job loss was that it represented an opportunity to escape from an undesirable job. Being laid off apparently made a decision that many unemployed men had considered but had not brought themselves to make prior to the layoff. Additional variables which might help to explain the high percentage of men expressing a positive attitude toward job loss are discussed. Especially important are factors which taken together enhance the adaptability of these middle-class professionals to their unemployment by softening its financial impact.     

Does unemployment lead to isolation? The consequences of unemployment for social networks

Popular accounts in both social science and society claim that unemployment goes together with social withdrawal. However, empirical support for this conclusion is largely derived from cross-sectional studies or indirect measurements of social contacts. In this study, we argue that consequences of unemployment for personal networks differ across social groups and by length of unemployment. Using longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel (1999–2010), we focus on three frequently employed social network statistics: network size, contact frequency, and perceived support by friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances. We estimate how short (<1 year) and long term (>1 year) unemployment relates to these network characteristics for men and women, people below and above 50 years of age, and lower and higher educated individuals. Our results provide a more-nuanced perspective on the commonly assumed social withdrawal following unemployment.     

From the employment office to the social welfare office: Social assistance recipiency among first-time unemployed in Sweden

Social assistance receipt among first-time unemployed in Sweden is investigated by analysing data files obtained by merging register data from the city of Goteborg. First-time unemployed males were observed during 1993 and 1994 and were followed in the register of social assistance recipients for 18 months after the debut. Many of the newly unemployed had no access to unemployment compensation. Slightly more than one out of five newly unemployed became social assistance recipients. Lengthy periods of unemployment combined with no access to unemployment compensation signify a high risk of becoming a social assistance recipient. This risk varies a great deal with age, citizenship, human capital and job search activity of the unemployed.     

Unemployed by choice: young creative people and the balancing of responsibilities through strategic self-management

The Danish welfare system inadvertently provides a good opportunity for young creative people to pursue their dreams in creative fields such as art, acting, music while being on unemployment benefits. As Michael, one of the participants, puts it: ‘I consider unemployment benefit entrepreneurial support’. The subversive practice is illegal. This qualitative study investigates how young unemployed people who choose to be unemployed in order to engage in innovative projects in creative fields understand and justify their practice. Analysis of in-depth interviews with six young unemployed persons shows how the understanding and management of responsibility is pivotal in the self-understanding and legitimization of receiving unemployment benefits by choice, not out of need. This creative group reflects the contours of a new type of unemployed that has received very little attention in the research literature. The group challenges the traditional representation of the unemployed and portrays themselves as innovative, competent and able to cope with financial insecurity even though it is psychologically distressing and a risky path to go down. We characterize them as strategic self-managing as they use educational systems and unemployment benefit systems for something entirely different from what they are intended – they use it to create their own artistic life courses. This study tentatively points to a categorization distinguishing between personal, social and societal responsibility by which we can improve our understanding of responsibility in neoliberal contexts.     

The psychological impact of unemployment and joblessness

Economists have identified two principal adverse effects of unemployment. One is the output foregone that could have been produced if unemployed workers had been productively employed. The second is the psychological damage suffered by unemployed workers and their families. Psychologists have offered theories to explain how experiences such as Joblessness may lead to a deterioration in mental health. They also have designed and validated survey instruments capable of measuring various aspects of emotional health. Unfortunately, their efforts to document the psychological impact of unemployment have been plagued by data limitations, while economists largely have ignored this task. The purpose of this study is three-fold. First, we discuss why unemployment and Joblessness are likely to influence an individual's perception of personal efficacy, locus of control, and hence psychological well-being. Second, we discuss and critique existing efforts to examine the relationship between labor force experiences and locus of control. Third, we investigate the relationship between Joblessness and its component parts—unemployment and dropping out of the labor force—on personal locus of control, using observations from the NLSY and an alternative methodological framework. The NLSY is a longitudinal data set that contains detailed information on the personal characteristics of individuals in the sample, their labor force experiences and a specific personal locus of control. In discussing the results we also attempt to shed some new light on the debate between Clark and Summers (1979) and Flinn and Heckman (1982, 1983) over the question of whether being out of the labor force and being unemployed should be thought of as distinct states. We add further insight into this issue by examining whether there are psychological differences, as measured by locus of control, between otherwise comparable members of these two groups. Finally, we reconsider the Ellwood and Ruhm exchange over whether joblessness and unemployment lead to “psychological” scarring. We find that labor force experiences fail to influence personal locus of control for male youths. There is evidence, however, that perception of personal efficacy is altered by joblessness among young women. As the duration of a current unemployment spell lengthens, the likelihood of holding beliefs of personal efficacy decline for young women. There is also some evidence of scarring among women. For females who in the past have spent time both unemployed and out of the labor force, the greater the duration of their joblessness the more likely is a reduction in feelings of personal efficacy and more aggravated one's self-perception of helplessness. We also offer psychological evidence on the relative emotional well-being of the unemployed and labor force drop outs that largely supports the position of Clark and Summers that these conditions are largely indistinguishable.     

Regional unemployment,gender, and time allocation of the unemployed

This paper analyzes the relationship between time allocation decisions of the unemployed, gender, and regional unemployment rates. Using two cross-sections from the 2002–2003 and 2009–2010 Spanish Time Use Surveys, we find that higher regional unemployment rates are associated with increases in the time devoted to study by men. Regional unemployment rates are also associated with more time devoted to household production, particularly for unemployed men and women living in a couple, and to less time devoted to leisure, particularly for unemployed men with a working partner and unemployed women not living in a couple. We interpret our findings as evidence favoring consumption smoothing. Higher regional unemployment rates imply a lower availability of jobs for the unemployed, it reduces individual expectations of finding a job, and thus households may try to increase their time spent on household production to reduce market expenditures and thus maintain their consumption constant. Increases in the time devoted to household production during business cycles need to be considered in the analysis of the wellbeing of the unemployed. Consumption smoothing may imply increased wellbeing, but more time devoted to household production is associated with lower experienced utility of individuals throughout the day.     

Quality of life among unemployed and employed people in northern Sweden. Are there any differences?

This study analysed self-assessed quality of life (QoL), using a QoL questionnaire (H?rnquist's QLcs) covering the life spheres, somatic health, mental well-being, cognitive ability, social and family life, activity, financial situation, meaning in life and a global score "entire life", in 487 unemployed subjects and 2917 employed subjects aged 25-64, in a population-based cross-sectional study in northern Sweden. In line with previous findings, results showed that unemployed people exhibited poorer QoL. Unemployed women scored higher in existential life domains than unemployed men did. Unemployed men were worst off in terms of general life situation. Employed respondents benefited in QoL by a university/college education, while unemployed respondents with a university/college education did not. Close social relations and money reserve were associated with higher QoL generally. It was concluded that further research is needed to differentiate various aspects of QoL and unemployment, and to compare with other samples.     

Stand By Your Man: Wives' Emotion Work During Men's Unemployment

Recent research on unemployment has not sufficiently acknowledged how unemployment reverberates within families, particularly emotionally. This article uses data from more than 50 in‐depth interviews to illuminate the emotional demands that men's unemployment makes beyond the unemployed individual. It shows that wives of unemployed men do two types of emotion work—self‐focused and other‐focused—and both are aimed toward facilitating husbands' success in the emotionally arduous white‐collar job‐search process. This article extends research on emotion work by suggesting that participants perceive wives' emotion work as a resource with potential economic benefits in the form of unemployed men's reemployment. The findings furthermore suggest that as a resource, wives' emotion work is shaped by the demands of the labor market that their husbands encounter.     

Unemployment in Families: The Case of Housework

Unemployment has consequences for individuals, but its impacts also reverberate through families. This paper examines how families adapt to unemployment in one area of life-time in housework. Using 74,881 observations from 10,390 couples in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we estimate fixed effects models and find that individuals spend between 3 and 7 hours more per week in housework when unemployed than when employed, with corresponding decreases of 1 to 2 hours per week in the housework hours of unemployed individuals' spouses. We are the first to show that unemployment is associated both with a reallocation of housework to the unemployed spouse and an increase in the family's total household production time. The results also provide evidence for gender differences in adjustments to the division of labor during unemployment, with wives' unemployment associated with an increase in housework hours that is double the increase for unemployed husbands.     

On the sociology of women's unemployment,its neglect and significance

Although there is an extensive and varied literature on the nature and consequences of unemployment very little has been written about the experiences of jobless women. This is unfortunate since there are good sociological reasons why the reactions to job loss among women may be different from those of men. Empirical data tend to support this expectation although more research is needed and called for. Sociological studies of unemployed women could contribute to the development of theories about wage-work, family life and domestic labour. Women's unemployment also has a broader significance in that it bears directly upon theories of social stratification and social order that are central to sociological study as a whole.     

WAGES,EMPLOYMENT, AND STATISTICAL DISCRIMINATION: EVIDENCE FROM THE LABORATORY

We report results from laboratory experiments designed to examine statistical discrimination. Our design expands upon existing research by generating data both on wage contracts and unemployment rates of directly competing worker groups. We find some evidence for statistical wage discrimination against workers having an identical expected productivity but a higher productivity variance. However, those same subjects are less likely to be unemployed, suggesting that our employer‐subjects view hiring choice and wage contracts as substitutable. A clear implication is that field data discrimination estimates based on wages alone may overestimate the true impact of such discrimination. (JEL C90, J71)     

SELF‐EMPLOYMENT,EFFICIENCY WAGE,AND PUBLIC POLICIES

Empirical evidence suggests that unemployed workers are much more likely to become self‐employed than wage‐employed workers. Also, higher unemployment benefits significantly reduce the rate of self‐employment. This article develops a model of self‐employment which incorporates transitions between unemployment and self‐employment. It integrates two strands of theoretical literature—models of occupational choice and the efficiency wage models. In this model, a higher unemployment benefit reduces the self‐employment rate and the transition rate of unemployed workers to self‐employment, which is consistent with empirical evidence. (JEL J23, J58, J64)     

新生代农民工的友缘关系分析

在新生代农民工的社会关系中,友缘是一种涵盖范围广并具有特殊性的关系形态。以往的研究大多将“朋友”与“亲戚”放在一起并称为“亲友”,但这一概念在日后的演变中逐渐离析。根据问卷调查的数据,友缘（化）关系可以分为三种类型：“友缘化关系”,“初级友缘关系”,“次级友缘关系”。不管何种类型,在新生代农民工融入城市的过程中都会发生友缘社会资本的变动。一方面．个体借助“友缘链”扩展社会资本,通过偶然机会结识朋友的比例很高。另一方面,不可抗的社会事件是造成友缘社会资本流失的重要原因。     

School-to-work transition: the case of Spanish NEETs

The school-to-work transition in Spain has become much more difficult and extended than before, with many young people today experiencing long periods of temporary employment, unemployment or inactivity. This article investigates the main socio-demographic characteristics of Spanish young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs). It also aims to compare them with their non-NEET counterparts in terms of social capital and family background. Analyses were based on a representative sample, corresponding to the year 2016, of Spanish young individuals ages 18–35 years (n?=?1.826). All analyses were stratified by gender and age group. Overall, the Spanish NEETs had lower educational levels, were mainly unemployed and married, except for NEETs between 18 and 24 years, who were rather inactive and single. They also experienced previous unemployment, had more unemployed friends, and were coming from poorer family backgrounds in comparison with their non-NEET counterparts.     

Experiences of white-collar job loss and job-searching in the United States

Unemployment is a pervasive and stubborn feature of contemporary social and economic life. This review article focuses on the meaning and experience of contemporary white-collar unemployment in the United States. After explaining the empirical and theoretical rationales for the focus on white-collar workers, this review delves into three aspects of white-collar unemployment: who loses jobs; what unemployment means for one's sense of self, marital relationships, parent-child relationships; and how the process of job-searching and re-employment unfold for unemployed white-collar workers in the US. Throughout, I take an intersectional approach, identifying how sensitivity to structural location in the labor market and the family can augment our sociological understandings of these important issues. I close by suggesting directions for future research.     

Reservation Wages and the Unemployment of Older Workers

Our purpose is to examine the level of reservation wages among older unemployed (45+), and investigate what happens to the level of reservation wages as the length of unemployment increases. Using data from questionnaires completed by unemployed, we examined the reservation wages of 364 individuals and asked whether they would be willing to compromise in terms of their occupation, profession or geographic location to find a job. 112 of the participants responded to two questionnaires over a three-month period to determine the changes in their expectations over time. Additionally, we conducted qualitative interviews with 10 unemployed. We found that older people experienced longer periods of unemployment, and had a greater willingness to reduce salary expectations. The study establishes an innovative connection between older unemployed, reservation wages and the duration of unemployment, showing that higher reservation wages among older unemployed is the cause of prolonging their unemployment.     

The Effects of Being Out of the Labor Market on Subsequent Wages: Evidence for Uruguay

Based on administrative data combining workers’ earnings histories and unemployment insurance benefits, we document short and long term wage losses for a large sample of Uruguayan formal workers with high tenure. The contribution of this paper is to provide original evidence about job separation costs in a developing country, based on a unique array of social security and unemployment insurance administrative micro-data. Our main findings indicate that workers lose around 38 % of their previous wages in the first quarter after separation, and 1 year after, losses are still more than 14 %. If we consider earnings plus unemployment insurance benefits, losses at the quarter of separation are considerable lower, amounting 22 % of previous wages. We also provide original evidence about how wage losses vary across age groups, gender, industry and size of the firm. Differences between switchers and non switchers, as well as the effects of the economic cycle are also analyzed.     

Personal Characteristics, Unemployment, and Anxiety among Highly Educated Immigrants

This exploratory study examines the relationship between personal resources (sense of potency, marital quality, social support from family and friends), the duration of unemployment, and the level of state anxiety experienced by highly educated, unemployed, middle‐aged immigrants. Studying the anxiety levels among populations at‐risk such as unemployed immigrants is particularly important in the context of situations of military conflict. In such situations, when formal support systems are in the process of erosion, the unemployed must increasingly rely on social and familial support. The following measures were examined in an anonymous, self‐report questionnaire: potency (defined as a person's enduring confidence in his/her own capacities and confidence in, and commitment to, his/her social environment which is perceived as being characterized by a basically meaningful order and just distribution of rewards), social support from friends and family, marital quality, and state anxiety. Results indicate that personal resources – particularly potency and social support from family – predicted the level of state anxiety among immigrants. Duration of unemployment was also positively correlated with state anxiety. A major recommendation that emerges is the need to foster the development of social support groups consisting of both veterans and new immigrants in order to broaden the social ties of the immigrants. This may assist newcomers not only in finding jobs, but also in coping with political and economic uncertainties in a new cultural context.