Skip to main content
×
Home
    • Aa
    • Aa

Scars that will not Disappear: Long-term Associations between Early and Later life Unemployment under Different Welfare Regimes

  • MARTINA BRANDT (a1) and KARSTEN HANK (a2)
Abstract
Abstract

Exploiting retrospective data from the SHARELIFE project, we investigate long-term associations between early and later life unemployment spells of at least six months in a sample of more than 13,000 men and women from eleven European countries. Our findings provide, first, evidence for significant differences in the life-course pattern of unemployment occurrence between welfare state regimes. Second, childhood conditions are shown to bear significant associations with the odds of experiencing periods of unemployment throughout one's employment career. Third, and finally, our analysis confirms previous research in that we provide clear evidence for long-term scarring effects, showing that they are indeed permanent ones, as we observe them even among older workers close to retirement. The paper concludes with a discussion of perspectives for future research.

Copyright
Linked references
Hide All

This list contains references from the content that can be linked to their source. For a full set of references and notes please see the PDF or HTML where available.

W. Arulampalam , P. Gregg and M. Gregory (2001), ‘Unemployment scarring’, The Economic Journal, 111, F577584.

C. Belzil (2001), ‘Unemployment insurance and subsequent job duration: job matching versus unobserved heterogeneity’, Journal of Applied Econometrics, 16: 619–36.

H.-P. Blossfeld , S. Buchholz and D. Hofäcker (eds.) (2006), Globalization, Uncertainty and Late Careers in Society, London: Routledge.

R. Böheim and M. P. Taylor (2002), ‘The search for success: do the unemployed find stable employment?’, Labour Economics, 9: 717–35.

A. Börsch-Supan , M. Brandt , C. Hunkler , T. Kneip , J. Korbmacher , F. Malter , B. Schaan , S. Stuck and S. Zuber (2013), ‘Data resource profile: the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)’, International Journal of Epidemiology: DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyt088.

A. Börsch-Supan , K. Hank , H. Jürges and M. Schröder (2010), ‘Longitudinal data collection in Continental Europe: experiences from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe’, in J. A. Harkness et al. (eds.), Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, pp. 507–14.

J. C. Botero , S. Djankov , R. La Porta , F. Lopez-de-Silanes and A. Shleifer (2004), ‘The regulation of labor’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 119: 1339–82.

M. Brandt , C. Deindl and K. Hank (2012), ‘Tracing the origins of successful aging: the role of childhood conditions and social inequality in explaining later life health’, Social Science and Medicine, 74: 1418–25.

A. Brugiavini , G. Pasini , and E. Trevisan (2011), ‘Maternity and labour market outcome: short and long term effects’, in A. Börsch-Supan et al. (eds.), The Individual and the Welfare State, Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 151–60.

R. L. Bruno and R. Rovelli (2010), ‘Labour market policies and outcomes in the enlarged EU’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 48: 661–85.

S. Buchholz , D. Hofäcker , M. Mills , H.-P. Blossfeld , K. Kurz and H. Hofmeister (2009), ‘Life courses in the globalization process: the development of social inequalities in modern societies’, European Sociological Review, 25: 5371.

A. Caspi , B. R. Entner Wright , T. E. Moffit and P. A. Silva (1998), ‘Early failure in the labor market: childhood and adolescent predictors of unemployment in the transition to adulthood’, American Sociological Review, 63: 424–51.

I. Covizzi (2008), ‘Does union dissolution lead to unemployment? A longitudinal study of health and risk of unemployment for women and men undergoing separation’, European Sociological Review, 24: 347–61.

J. Currie (2009), ‘Healthy, wealthy, and wise: socioeconomic status, poor health in childhood, and human capital development’, Journal of Economic Literature, 47: 87122.

M. Dieckhoff (2011), ‘The effect of unemployment on subsequent job quality in Europe: a comparative study of four countries’, Acta Scociologica, 54: 233–49.

T. A. DiPrete and G. M. Eirich (2006), ‘Cumulative advantage as a mechanism for inequality: a review of theoretical and empirical developments’, Annual Review of Sociology, 32: 271–97.

D. Doiron and T. Gørgens (2008), ‘State dependence in youth labor market experiences, and the evaluation of policy interventions’, Journal of Econometrics, 145: 8197.

B. Ebbinghaus (2006), Reforming Early Retirement in Europe, Japan and the USA, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

M. Eliason and D. Storrie (2006), ‘Lasting or latent scars? Swedish evidence on the long-term effects of job displacement’, Journal of Labor Economics, 24: 831–56.

N. Elvander (2002), ‘The labour market regimes in the Nordic countries: a comparative perspective’, Scandinavian Political Studies, 25: 117–37.

M. Gangl (2004), ‘Welfare states and the scar effects of unemployment: a comparative analysis of the United States and West Germany’, American Journal of Sociology, 109: 1319–64.

M. Gangl (2006), ‘Scar effects of unemployment: an assessment of institutional complementarities’, American Sociological Review, 71: 9861013.

R. Gibbons and L. F. Katz (1991), ‘Layoffs and lemons’, Journal of Labor Economics, 9: 351–80.

P. Gregg (2001), ‘The impact of youth unemployment on adult unemployment in the NCDS’, The Economic Journal, 111: F626–F653.

S. A. Haas , M. M. Glymour and L. F. Berkman (2011), ‘Childhood health and labor market inequality over the life course’, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 52: 298313.

M. Jacob and C. Kleinert (2008), ‘Does unemployment help or hinder becoming independent? The role of employment status for leaving the parental home’, European Sociological Review, 24: 141–53.

H. Jürges (2007), ‘Unemployment, life satisfaction and retrospective error’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A, 170: 4361.

L. B. Kahn (2010), ‘The long-term labor market consequences of graduating from college in a bad economy’, Labour Economics, 17: 303–16.

M. Knuth and T. Kalina (2002), ‘Early exit from the labour force between exclusion and privilege: unemployment as a transition from employment to retirement in West Germany’, European Societies, 4: 393418.

M. Kreyenfeld (2010), ‘Uncertainties in female employment careers and the postponement of parenthood in Germany’, European Sociological Review, 26: 351–66.

R. Luijkx and M. H. J. Wolbers (2009), ‘The effects of non-employment in early work–life on subsequent employment chances of individuals in the Netherlands’, European Sociological Review, 25: 647–60.

A. Manzoni , R. Luijkx and R. Muffels (2011), ‘Explaining differences in labour market transitions between panel and life-course data in West-Germany’, Quality and Quantity, 45: 241–61.

S. Nickell , L. Nunziata and W. Ochel (2005), ‘Unemployment in the OECD since the 1960s: what do we know?’, The Economic Journal, 115: 127.

O. Raaum and K. Røed (2006), ‘Do business cycle conditions at the time of labor market entry affect future employment prospects?’, Review of Economics and Statistics, 88: 193210.

R. Sackmann (2001), ‘Age and labour-market chances in international comparison’, European Sociological Review, 17: 373–87.

M. Schröder (2013), ‘Jobless now, sick later? Investigating the long-term consequences of involuntary job loss on health’, Advances in Life Course Research, 18: 515.

A. H. Stevens (1997), ‘Persistent effects of job displacement: the importance of multiple job losses’, Journal of Labor Economics, 15: 165–88.

M. Strandh and M. Nordlund (2008), ‘Active labour market policy and unemployment scarring: a ten-year Swedish panel study’, Journal of Social Policy, 37: 357–82.

M. E. Szinovaczs (2011), ‘Introduction: the aging workforce: challenges for societies, employers, and older workers’, Journal of Aging and Social Policy, 23: 95100.

K. Tatsiramos (2009), ‘Unemployment insurance in Europe: unemployment duration and subsequent employment stability’, Journal of the European Economic Association, 7: 1225–60.

D. A. Wise (2010), ‘Facilitating longer working lives: international evidence on why and how’, Demography, 47 (Supplement), S131–S149.

M. H. J. Wolbers (2007), ‘Patterns of labour market entry: a comparative perspective on school-to-work transitions in 11 European countries’, Acta Sociologica, 50: 189210.

Recommend this journal

Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this journal to your organisation's collection.

Journal of Social Policy
  • ISSN: 0047-2794
  • EISSN: 1469-7823
  • URL: /core/journals/journal-of-social-policy
Please enter your name
Please enter a valid email address
Who would you like to send this to? *
×

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 8
Total number of PDF views: 87 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 394 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between September 2016 - 13th July 2017. This data will be updated every 24 hours.