The Working Class Left Behind? The Class Gap in Life Satisfaction in Germany and Switzerland Over the Last Decades

Lipps, Oliver; Oesch, Daniel

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3098909

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The self-employed classes also show lower life satisfaction than those in the upper salariat placing them in the middle of the employed class hierarchy. These results for Western Europe are very much in line with those of Lipps & Oesch (2018) for Germany and Switzerland.…”

Section: Class Destination and Class Originsupporting

confidence: 87%

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Positional, Mobility, and Reference Effects: How Does Social Class Affect Life Satisfaction in Europe?

Kaiser

Trinh

2021

European Sociological Review

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In this study, we analyse the effects of social class on life satisfaction. We develop a theoretical framework that shows how social class affects life satisfaction through five different pathways. Informed by this framework, we estimate the direct effects of class destination and class origin, the effect of own intergenerational class mobility, as well as the effects of others’ class position and mobility. To do so, we utilize European Social Survey waves 1 to 5 (2002–2010) and obtain information on life satisfaction as well as destination and origin class for about 80,000 respondents in 32 European countries. We find (i) class destination consistently and strongly structures life satisfaction across Europe, (ii) own class mobility has a significant impact on life satisfaction in Eastern Europe, as does (iii) the class mobility of others. The last finding points to the hitherto neglected importance of reference effects when considering the impact of social class on life satisfaction.

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Section: Class Destination and Class Originsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Unfortunately, by using dummies for each mobility trajectory, it is indeterminate as to whether class mobility effects or class origin effects drive these results. Lipps & Oesch (2018) consider Germany and Switzerland. They also use a collapsed EGP class scheme.…”

Section: This Leads Us To Statementioning

confidence: 99%

Positional, Mobility, and Reference Effects: How Does Social Class Affect Life Satisfaction in Europe?

Kaiser

Trinh

2021

European Sociological Review

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“…Intergenerational downward mobility in education and income was highly associated with life satisfaction [14,15]. However, ample evidence found that those in higher working classes often suffer from dissatisfaction in their lives [16][17][18][19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decomposition of caste differential in life satisfaction among older adults in India

Muhammad

Paul²,

Meher³

et al. 2022

BMC Geriatr

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Background Being a multi-cultured country, India has varied social groups which largely shape the lives of individuals. Literature has shown that life satisfaction is highly associated with the social status of individuals. However, changing age dynamics (growing older) and definition of life among people presses the need to understand whether the additional years of life in older adults are manifested with the disparity in life satisfaction among the Scheduled Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribes (ST) and non-SC/ST social groups in recent years. The present study explored the factors contributing to such differences in life satisfaction across social groups. Methods This study used data from the Longitudinal Aging Study in India conducted during 2017-18. The analytical sample of the study was 30,370 older adults. Life satisfaction was the outcome variable with a score ranging from 5 to 35. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis were conducted. Simple linear regression analysis was used to establish the association between the outcome and explanatory variables. Further, the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition model was used to analyse the role of explanatory factors in the caste difference in life satisfaction among older people. Results Overall, the life satisfaction score among older adults in the study was 23.9 (SD- 7.3). Older adults from non-SC/ST group had significantly higher likelihood of having life satisfaction in comparison to older adults from SC/ST group [Coef: 0.31; CI: 0.14, 0.49]. The decomposition results showed that the model explained 74.3% of the caste gap (between SC/ST and non-SC/ST) in life satisfaction among older adults in India. Subjective social status (39.0%) was widening the gap for life satisfaction among older adults from SC/ST and non-SC/ST group. Similarly, level of education (15.2%) followed by satisfaction with living arrangement (13.2%) and place of residence (5.3%) contributed for widening the gap for life satisfaction among older adults from SC/ST and non-SC/ST group. Region of country (− 11.5%) followed by self-rated health (− 3.0%) and major depression (− 2.7%) contributed for narrowing down the gap for life satisfaction among older adults from SC/ST and non-SC/ST group. Conclusion Older adults belonging to non-SC/ST groups were more likely to have a higher level of life satisfaction than those from the SC/ST group. Factors like subjective social status, educational level, living arrangement satisfaction, and place of residence explained the caste differential in life satisfaction among older adults. In addition, factors such as psychological health and perceived health status should be the area of concern and special focus for policy makers and researchers in terms of reducing social inequalities in wellbeing among older population.

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“…Non-associated, small-unit production has limitations in economic development because it cannot take advantage of the collective branding effect of large corporations or factories, nor can it take advantage of more efficient logistics and transportation services. Arguing from this point of view, the southern Italian region needs to establish a sound mechanism for the employment of immigrants and legislation to protect their rights [29]. The Italian Parliament passed Act 199 to prohibit exploitative labor and illegal labor intermediation, defining labor exploitation as (a) the systematic payment of wages below the established salary level.…”

Section: Immigrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The North and South Divide: A Drag on the Italian Economy

Xiong¹

2022

HBEM

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Over the last three decades, Italy's GDP growth has seen generally seen stagnation. In the European Union, Italy's economic development rate is among the poorer levels and is internationally recognized as a country not suitable for investment. This has directly led to a decline in Italy's international voice. When it comes to the causes of Italy's economic development stagnation, the North-South gap within Italy is one of the important reasons, which is manifested in the excessive difference between the GDP per capita of the South and the North within Italy. For a long time, the north and the south of Italy have developed differently, including the different distribution of economic pillars (this paper focuses on agriculture, industry, and tourism), the different employment patterns of workers, and the different motivations of people to engage in economic development. These differences have led to an extreme imbalance in the economic development of the north and south of Italy, especially in the south, where the level of development is lower than that of the north. Such an imbalance in economic development is undoubtedly detrimental to the overall economic development of Italy. The comparison with Germany and Spain leads to the conclusion that Italy needs to reduce the gap between the North and South of the country by improving the quality of workers, introducing advanced technologies and regulating the employment system of immigrants.

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The Working Class Left Behind? The Class Gap in Life Satisfaction in Germany and Switzerland Over the Last Decades

Cited by 3 publications

References 36 publications

Positional, Mobility, and Reference Effects: How Does Social Class Affect Life Satisfaction in Europe?

Positional, Mobility, and Reference Effects: How Does Social Class Affect Life Satisfaction in Europe?

Decomposition of caste differential in life satisfaction among older adults in India

The North and South Divide: A Drag on the Italian Economy

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