Are Self-Employed Really Happier than Employees? – An Approach Modelling Adaptation and Anticipation Effects to Self-Employment and General Job Changes

Hanglberger, Dominik; Merz, Joachim

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1884784

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Hanglberger and Merz (2011) appeal to SOEP data to look at adaptation to self-employment, finding full adaptation within three years, and there is full adaptation to unionization within a few years in Powdthavee (2011). On the contrary, Burchell (2011) finds that there is little adaptation to job insecurity in BHPS data (which perhaps resonates with the suggestion in Graham et al, 2011, that is difficult to adapt to conditions that are associated with uncertainty).…”

Section: Adaptation In Other Life Domainsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Adaptation and the Easterlin Paradox

Clark

2016

Advances in Happiness Research

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Two behavioural explanations of the Easterlin Paradox are commonly advanced. The first appeals to social comparisons, whereby individual i compares her income (Y it ) to a comparison income level earned by some other individual or group j (Y * jt ). The second explanation is that of adaptation to higher levels of income. This is of the same nature, but here the individual's current income is compared to her own income in the past (i.e. Y it is compared to Y it-τ , for some positive value or values of τ). The first of these explanations has attracted far more empirical attention than has the second. This is probably for dataavailability reasons, as the investigation of the latter requires panel information. There is also a suspicion that large changes in Y it might be accompanied by a movement in some other variable that is also correlated with subjective well-being. We here review the empirical evidence that individuals do indeed compare current to past income, and then whether individuals adapt in general to aspects of their economic and social life. Last, we ask whether adaptation is in fact a viable explanation of the Easterlin Paradox.

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Section: Adaptation In Other Life Domainsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Adaptation and the Easterlin Paradox

Clark

2016

Advances in Happiness Research

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“…On average, individuals report a larger gain in well-being when returning to work than the loss they report when losing it. A possible explanation for this asymetry is the existence of anticipation and adaptation effects, an approach taken in Hanglberger and Merz (2011), who find large and negative anticipation effects of losing a job. When looking at the same transitional matrix decomposed by gender, we find that men report higher drops and peaks than women.…”

Section: Data On Subjective Well-being and Labor Force Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The unhappily unemployed return to work faster

Mavridis

2015

IZA J Labor Econ

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This paper shows that job loss is associated with a fall in subjective well-being (SWB). It then looks at how this change in SWB predicts job search and unemployment duration. The findings suggest that those who report feeling hurt by unemployment have shorter unemployment durations. Men who report a loss of SWB are also more likely to look for a job, but women's job search is not affected by the SWB loss. These findings confirm the theoretical prediction from job search theory: search effort and unemployment duration are affected by the utility differential between having a job and being unemployed. JEL codes: J64; J28

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“…Thus, considering traditional microeconomics, one may conclude that self-employed workers are less satisfied than employees. However, previous studies demonstrate that they are more satisfied with their work than employees (Benz and Frey, 2008;Hundley, 2001;Hamilton, 2000;Blanchflower and Oswald, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Greenland et al (1999) refer to the unobserved result as "counterfactual". In order to include it in evaluating the treatment effect on the result, scholars recommend that the result of an individual who received treatment be compared to that of another who did not.…”

Section: Propensity Scores Matchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous works on satisfaction reveal that, as compared to employees, self-employed workers: (1) have a lower and more volatile average income (Hamilton, 2000;Krashinski, 2004;Carrington et al, 1996;Carrington, McCue, andPierce, 1996 andKawaguchi, 2003); (2) spend more time at work (Hyytinen and Ruuskanen, 2007), and (3) have a more risky portfolio (Moskowitz and Vissing Jorgensen 2002). Thus, considering traditional microeconomics, one may conclude that self-employed workers are less satisfied than employees.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Job Satisfaction of Self-Employed Workers: Empirical Evidence from Cameroon Data

Tchinda

Bing

2017

IJMSBA

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Abstract:This study aims at contributing to the debate opposing results-based utility to procedural utility by evaluating the effect of self-employment on job satisfaction. Data is taken from the second Cameroonian Household Survey (2015). Many propensity scores matching techniques were used in addition to models of qualitative variables which led to the conclusion that self-employed workers are more satisfied with work than employees. This satisfaction is felt despite the fact that self-employment generates low income, almost has no job security and calls for long working hours. The high level of autonomy enjoyed by self-employed workers explains this result, which is in line with the procedural utility approach. Furthermore, this study shows that self-employed workers by necessity are less satisfied than self-employed workers by opportunity, meaning that the level of satisfaction varies.

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Are Self-Employed Really Happier than Employees? – An Approach Modelling Adaptation and Anticipation Effects to Self-Employment and General Job Changes

Cited by 11 publications

References 30 publications

Adaptation and the Easterlin Paradox

Adaptation and the Easterlin Paradox

The unhappily unemployed return to work faster

Job Satisfaction of Self-Employed Workers: Empirical Evidence from Cameroon Data

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