New publication from EXCEPT researchers

An article by EXCEPT researchers discussing the question if past unemployment experience explains the transition happiness gap is now published in the Journal of Comparative Economics.

The profound economic and political changes of the 1990s had detrimental social effects in many domains of life in post-socialist countries, including diminishing life expectancy and growing unhappiness. Despite economic improvements in the second decade of transition, research has documented that happiness lagged behind. In the article the authors Edward C. Norton, Olena Nizalova and Irina Murtazashvili test whether past unemployment experience can explain transition happiness gap in the context of Ukraine”, a country with a painful delayed transition from planned to market economy.

Analizing longitudinal data for the period 2003–2012, the authors found that current unemployment substantially reduces subjective wellbeing, and the effect is roughly 50% larger for men than for women. The effect of past unemployment is significant, but small in magnitude compared to the effect of current unemployment. However, it does correspond to around 8% of the ‘’transition happiness gap” found by Guriev and Melnikov (2017), suggesting that past unemployment experience can be considered as a partial explanation.

Access the article here.