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Income, Unemployment, Higher Education and Wellbeing in Times of Economic Crisis: Evidence from Granada (Spain)

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  • Jorge Guardiola
  • Monica Guillen-Royo

Abstract

The 2008 financial crisis hit the world’s economies in different ways. In Spain, the economic crisis has had an acute effect on unemployment and access to education, aggravated by the austerity plans of the Spanish government. In order to cope with the crisis, the government′s efforts have aimed to control public deficit and stabilize financial markets, rather than to directly support citizens’ wellbeing. This paper studies the relationship between unemployment, education, income and subjective wellbeing (SWB) in the city of Granada, one of the most negatively affected by the crisis, using representative household data for 2012. We approach SWB from three different but interrelated angles through answers to questions on life satisfaction, financial satisfaction and material needs satisfaction. Results reveal that in this context of crisis and high levels of unemployment, higher education and employment status are still strong determinants of SWB but that income has a weak and non-robust relationship with SWB, except in the case of satisfying material needs. In addition, the unemployment levels of the same age-group are also negatively linked with people’s SWB, contrary to what we would expect from previous literature predicting a positive impact of having others around experiencing the same precarious situation. Thus, our results suggest that in Spain, policies to address the effects of the crisis should strengthen their focus on providing employment opportunities and keeping people in education rather than cutting public spending to meet the needs of the financial markets. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Jorge Guardiola & Monica Guillen-Royo, 2015. "Income, Unemployment, Higher Education and Wellbeing in Times of Economic Crisis: Evidence from Granada (Spain)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(2), pages 395-409, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:120:y:2015:i:2:p:395-409
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-014-0598-6
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    3. López-Ruiz, Samara & Tortajada, Cecilia & González-Gómez, Francisco, 2020. "Is the human right to water sufficiently protected in Spain? Affordability and governance concerns," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    4. Susanne Elsas, 2021. "Causality in the Link between Income and Satisfaction: IV Estimation with Internal Instruments," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1143, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Wasim Qazi & Syed Ali Raza & Arshian Sharif, 2017. "Higher Education Development and Unemployment in Pakistan: Evidence from Structural Break Testing," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 18(5), pages 1089-1110, October.
    6. Yubin Ding & Junling Xu & Sisi Huang & Peipei Li & Cuizhen Lu & Shenghua Xie, 2020. "Risk Perception and Depression in Public Health Crises: Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-17, August.
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