Unemployment Benefit Conditionality: Adverse Well-being Effects on Unemployed and Employed Individuals in Europe

Williams, E. (2021) Unemployment Benefit Conditionality: Adverse Well-being Effects on Unemployed and Employed Individuals in Europe. Social Policy Association Annual Conference 2021, 07-09 Jul 2021.

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Abstract

Social policies can mitigate or worsen the adverse well-being impacts that are associated with unemployment. Existing research, for example, investigates the mitigating role of benefit generosity and active labour market policies (ALMPs). Unemployment benefit generosity has also been associated with wider positive spillover effects for employed individuals. For the employed, this might function by lessening concerns about future income in the event of unemployment. This paper considers the potentially aggravating effect of unemployment benefit conditionality on two subdimensions of subjective well-being (life satisfaction and happiness), using data from across 16 European countries. Individual-level data from the European Social Survey (2002-2012) are combined with social policy indicators at the country-level and analysed using multi-level models. The results indicate that stricter conditionality rules increase the adverse subjective well-being impact of unemployment, which is consistent with the findings of existing single-country studies. A spillover effect is also observed, in that conditionality is associated with a small adverse effect on employed individuals, explainable by the fact that conditionality might increase concerns about future access to reliable income in the event of unemployment. In addition, conditionality might play a role through its effect on labour markets, given that existing research links it with negative effects on earnings and employment stability. The findings have implications for the design of social security policy as countries respond to rising unemployment in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Williams, Dr Evan
Authors: Williams, E.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
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