IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jorssa/v170y2007i1p43-61.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unemployment, life satisfaction and retrospective error

Author

Listed:
  • Hendrik Jürges

Abstract

Summary. The paper compares current and 1‐year retrospective data on unemployment in the German Socio‐Economic Panel study. 13% of all unemployment spells are not reported 1 year later, and another 7% are misreported. The ratio of retrospective to current unemployment has increased in recent years and is related to salience of unemployment measures such as the loss of life satisfaction that is associated with unemployment. Individuals with weak labour force attachment, e.g. women with children or individuals who are close to retirement, have the greatest propensity to under‐report unemployment retrospectively. The data are consistent with evidence on retrospective bias found by cognitive psychologists and survey methodologists.

Suggested Citation

  • Hendrik Jürges, 2007. "Unemployment, life satisfaction and retrospective error," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 170(1), pages 43-61, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jorssa:v:170:y:2007:i:1:p:43-61
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-985X.2006.00441.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2006.00441.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2006.00441.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Kahneman & Peter P. Wakker & Rakesh Sarin, 1997. "Back to Bentham? Explorations of Experienced Utility," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 375-406.
    2. Andrew E. Clark, 2003. "Unemployment as a Social Norm: Psychological Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 289-322, April.
    3. George A. Akerlof & Janet L. Yellen, 1985. "Unemployment Through the Filter of Memory," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(3), pages 747-773.
    4. repec:bla:econom:v:68:y:2001:i:270:p:221-41 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Mathiowetz, Nancy A & Duncan, Greg J, 1988. "Out of Work, Out of Mind: Response Errors in Retrospective Reports of Unemployment," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 6(2), pages 221-229, April.
    6. Martin Biewen & Ralf Wilke, 2005. "Unemployment duration and the length of entitlement periods for unemployment benefits: do the IAB employment subsample and the German Socio-Economic Panel yield the same results?," AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis, Springer;German Statistical Society, vol. 89(2), pages 209-236, June.
    7. Andrew Clark & Yannis Georgellis & Peter Sanfey, 2001. "Scarring: The Psychological Impact of Past Unemployment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(270), pages 221-241, May.
    8. Hunt, Jennifer, 1995. "The Effect of Unemployment Compensation on Unemployment Duration in Germany," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(1), pages 88-120, January.
    9. Gillian Paull, 2002. "Biases in the reporting of labour market dynamics," IFS Working Papers W02/10, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    10. Gregory, Mary & Jukes, Robert, 2001. "Unemployment and Subsequent Earnings: Estimating Scarring among British Men 1984-94," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(475), pages 607-625, November.
    11. Hujer, Reinhard & Schneider, Hilmar, 1989. "The analysis of labor market mobility using panel data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(2-3), pages 530-536, March.
    12. Arulampalam, Wiji, 2001. "Is Unemployment Really Scarring? Effects of Unemployment Experiences on Wages," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(475), pages 585-606, November.
    13. Liliana Winkelmann & Rainer Winkelmann, 1998. "Why Are the Unemployed So Unhappy?Evidence from Panel Data," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 65(257), pages 1-15, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michaela R. Kreyenfeld & Sonja Bastin, 2013. "Blurred memory, deliberate misreporting, or “true tales”? How different survey methods affect respondents’ reports of partnership status at first birth," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2013-017, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    2. Bachmann, Ronald & Schaffner, Sandra, 2009. "Biases in the measurement of labour market dynamics," Technical Reports 2009,12, Technische Universität Dortmund, Sonderforschungsbereich 475: Komplexitätsreduktion in multivariaten Datenstrukturen.
    3. Andrew E. Clark & Ed Diener & Yannis Georgellis & Richard E. Lucas, 2008. "Lags And Leads in Life Satisfaction: a Test of the Baseline Hypothesis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(529), pages 222-243, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hendrik Jürges, 2005. "Unemployment, retrospective error, and life satisfaction," MEA discussion paper series 05089, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    2. Silvia Mendolia, 2014. "The impact of husband’s job loss on partners’ mental health," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 277-294, June.
    3. Thi Truong An Hoang & Andreas Knabe, 2021. "Time Use, Unemployment, and Well-Being: An Empirical Analysis Using British Time-Use Data," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 2525-2548, August.
    4. Clark, Andrew E. & Lepinteur, Anthony, 2019. "The causes and consequences of early-adult unemployment: Evidence from cohort data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 107-124.
    5. Hande Inanc, 2015. "Unemployment and the timing of parenthood," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(7), pages 219-250.
    6. Mike Shields & Mark Wooden, 2003. "Investigating the Role of Neighbourhood Characteristics in Determining Life Satisfaction," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2003n24, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    7. Andreas Knabe & Steffen Rätzel & Ronnie Schöb & Joachim Weimann, 2010. "Dissatisfied with Life but Having a Good Day: Time-use and Well-being of the Unemployed," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(547), pages 867-889, September.
    8. Stark, Oded & Jakubek, Marcin & Kobus, Martyna, 2015. "Engineering an incentive to search for work: A comparison groups approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1-4.
    9. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, 2006. "Income and happiness: Evidence, explanations and economic implications," PSE Working Papers halshs-00590436, HAL.
    10. Nick Carroll, 2007. "Unemployment and Psychological Well‐being," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 83(262), pages 287-302, September.
    11. Corinna GHIRELLI, 2015. "Scars of early non-employment in a rigid labour market," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2015008, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    12. Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2008. "Putting a price tag on friends, relatives, and neighbours: Using surveys of life satisfaction to value social relationships," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1459-1480, August.
    13. Sjögren, Anna & Mattias , Mattias & Hall, Caroline & Holmlund, Helena & Lundin, Martin & Mühlrad, Hanna & Öckert, Björn, 2021. "Swedish children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic," Working Paper Series 2021:3, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    14. Lídia Farré & Francesco Fasani & Hannes Mueller, 2018. "Feeling useless: the effect of unemployment on mental health in the Great Recession," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-34, December.
    15. Rainer Winkelmann, 2009. "Unemployment, Social Capital, and Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 421-430, August.
    16. Nattavudh Powdthavee, 2005. "Unhappiness and Crime: Evidence from South Africa," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 72(287), pages 531-547, August.
    17. Aysit Tansel & H. Mehmet Taşçı, 2010. "Hazard Analysis of Unemployment Duration by Gender in a Developing Country: The Case of Turkey," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(4), pages 501-530, December.
    18. John P. Haisken-DeNew & Mathias Sinning, 2007. "Social Deprivation and Exclusion of Immigrants in Germany," Ruhr Economic Papers 0031, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    19. Anne C. Gielen & Jan C. Ours, 2014. "Unhappiness and Job Finding," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(323), pages 544-565, July.
    20. Clemens Hetschko, 2016. "On the misery of losing self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 461-478, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jorssa:v:170:y:2007:i:1:p:43-61. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rssssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.