Do People Adapt to Unemployment? Findings from Türkiye

Year 2023, Volume: 73 Issue: 2, 781 - 810, 30.12.2023

Zeynep Ugur

https://doi.org/10.26650/ISTJECON2023-1271508

Abstract

Unemployment is known to have adverse effects on well-being. Moreover, people can adapt to many adverse events to some extent. This study seeks to answer the question “Do people adapt to unemployment over time?” to shed light on the happiness of the unemployed in Türkiye. We use individual-level data from the Life Satisfaction Survey in 2010–2020. First, we show that, consistent with previous research, the happiness of the unemployed is significantly lower than that of the employed. Second, those who have been unemployed for less than a year are less happy than those who have been unemployed for more than a year. That is, the unemployed become accustomed to their situation over time. However, those who have found work in the last year are much happier than both the unemployed in general and those who have been unemployed for more than a year and have adapted to unemployment. From the standpoint of happiness, our results support the hypothesis that finding a job is preferable to becoming accustomed to unemployment. In addition, married men are more adversely impacted by unemployment and less adaptive to unemployment.

JEL Classification : F13 , H23

Keywords

Unemployment, Well-being, Adaptation, Türkiye

References

• Axelrad, H., Sherman, A., & Luski, I. (2020). The effect of employment on the subjective well-being of 60-80 years old people. International Journal of Social Economics, 47(12), 1481-1497. google scholar
• Blanchflower, D. G., & Oswald, A. J. (2004). Well-Being over time in Britain and the USA. Journal of public economics, 88(7-8), 1359-1386. google scholar
• Böckerman, P., & Ilmakunnas, P. (2006). Elusive effects of unemployment on happiness. Social Indicators Research 79(1), 159-169. google scholar
• Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of personality and social psychology, 36(8), 917. google scholar
• Clark, A., Georgellis, Y., & Sanfey, P. (2001). Scarring: The psychological impact of past unemployment. Economica, 68(270), 221-241. google scholar
• Clark, A., & Oswald, A. (1994). Unhappiness and unemployment. Economic Journal, 104(424), 648659. google scholar
• Clark, A. E. (2003). Unemployment as a social norm: Psychological evidence from panel data. Journal of Labor Economics 21(2), 323-351. google scholar
• Clark, A. E., Diener, E., Georgellis, Y., & Lucas, R. E. (2008). Lags and leads in life satisfaction: A test of the baseline hypothesis. The Economic Journal, 118(529), F222-F243. google scholar
• Clark, A. E., & Georgellis, Y. (2013). Back to baseline in Britain: Adaptation in the British household panel survey. Economica, 80(319), 496-512. google scholar
• Cummins, R. A. (2000). Objective and subjective quality of life: An interactive model. Social indicators Research 52(1), 55-72. google scholar
• De Vogli, R., Marmot, M., & Stuckler, D. (2013). Excess suicides and attempted suicides in Italy attributable to the Great Recession. J Epidemiol Community Health, 67(4), 378-379. google scholar
• Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Oishi, S. (2002). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and life satisfaction. Handbook of positive psychology, 2, 63-73. google scholar
• Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Scollon, C. N. (2009). Beyond the hedonic treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being. The Science of Well-Being (pp. 103-118): Springer. google scholar
• Du, H., Götz, F. M., King, R. B., & Rentfrow, P. J. (2022). The Psychological imprint of inequality: Economic inequality shapes achievement and power values in human life. Journal of Personality. google scholar
• EUROSTAT. (2021). Statistics on young people neither in employment nor in education or training. Retrieved from Luxembourg: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index. php?title=Statistics_on_young_people_neither_in_employment_nor_in_education_or_ training#The_NEET_rate_within_the_EU_and_its_Member_States_2021 google scholar
• EUROSTAT. (2022). Young people neither in employment nor in education and training by sex, age and labour status (neet rates). Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ EDAT_LFSE_20__custom_3239987/default/table?lang=en google scholar
• Everding, J., & Marcus, J. (2020). The Effect of unemployment on the smoking behavior of couples. Health Economics, 29(2), 154-170. google scholar
• Jahoda, M., Lazarsfeld, P., & Zeisel, H. (1933). Marienthal: The sociography of an unemployed community (English Translation, 1971). London: Tavistock Publications. google scholar
• Kanlıoğlu, M. B., & Dumludağ, D. (2022). The Relationship between unemployment, employment expectations and happiness in Turkey for the years: 2003-2018. Journal of Research in Economics, 6(1), 1-19. google scholar
• Kuzu, S., Elmas-Atay, S., & Gerçek, M. (2019). The Analysis of unemployment, happiness and demographic factors using log-linear models. International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 17(1), 87-105. google scholar
• Lucas, R. E., Clark, A. E., Georgellis, Y., & Diener, E. (2004). Unemployment alters the set point for life satisfaction. Psychological Science 15(1), 8-13. google scholar
• Roex, K. L., & Rözer, J. J. (2018). The Social norm to work and the well-being of the short-and long-term unemployed. Social indicators research, 139(3), 1037-1064. google scholar
• Rudolf, R., & Kang, S.-J. (2015). Lags and leads in life satisfaction in Korea: When gender matters. Feminist Economics, 21(1), 136-163. google scholar
• Sherman, A., & Shavit, T. (2018). The thrill of creative effort at work: An Empirical study on work, creative effort and well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(7), 2049-2069. google scholar
• Stavrova, O., Schlösser, T., & Fetchenhauer, D. (2011). Are the unemployed equally unhappy all around the world? The Role of the social norms to work and welfare state provision in 28 Oecd countries. Journal of economic psychology, 32(1), 159-171. google scholar
• Susanlı, Z. B. (2018). Life satisfaction and unemployment in Turkey: Evidence from life satisfaction surveys 2004-2013. Quality & Quantity, 52(1), 479-499. google scholar
• Tur-Prats, A. (2021). Unemployment and intimate partner violence: A cultural approach. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 185, 27-49. google scholar
• Turgut, A. Ş., & Ayhan, E. E. (2022). Bir baş etme stratejisi olarak “İşsizliği Normalleştirmek”. SGD-Sosyal Güvenlik Dergisi, 12(1), 115-130. google scholar
• TÜİK. (2022). İşgücü istatistikleri (2014 Ve Sonrası). Retrieved from Ankara: google scholar
• Ugur, Z. B. (2021a). Does money buy happiness in Turkey? Applied Research in Quality of Life, 16(3), 1073-1096. google scholar
• Ugur, Z. B. (2021b). How does inequality hamper subjective well-being? The role of fairness. Social indicators research, 158(2), 377-407. google scholar
• Ugur, Z. B., & Durak, A. (2022). Does social context impact the well-being consequences of unemployment? Working Paper. google scholar
• Uğur, Z. (2023). Wellbeing consequences of unemployment and working with a job dissatisfaction in Turkey. International Econometric Review, 14(4), 124-141. google scholar
• Van der Meer, P. H. (2014). Gender, unemployment and subjective well-being: Why being unemployed is worse for men than for women. Social Indicators Research 115(1), 23-44. google scholar
• Von Scheve, C., Esche, F., & Schupp, J. (2017). The Emotional timeline of unemployment: Anticipation, reaction, and adaptation. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18(4), 1231-1254. google scholar
• Winkelmann, L., & Winkelmann, R. (1998). Why are the unemployed so unhappy? Evidence from panel data. Economica, 65(257), 1-15. google scholar
• Winkelmann, R. (2014). Unemployment and happiness. IZA World of Labor, 94, 1-10. google scholar
• WVS. Online Data Analysis. Retrieved from https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp google scholar