You’ll never walk alone: Unemployment, social networks and leisure activities. A new GLO Discussion Paper by GLO Fellow Matteo Picchio and Mattia Filomena.

A new GLO Discussion Paper using Dutch panel data finds that unemployment does not lead to social exclusion.

Matteo Picchio

GLO Discussion Paper No. 1346, 2023

You’ll never walk alone: Unemployment, social networks and leisure activities  Download PDF
by Filomena, Mattia & Picchio, Matteo

GLO Fellow Matteo Picchio

Author Abstract: We analyse how unemployment affects individuals’ social networks, leisure activities, and the related satisfaction measures. Using the LISS panel, a representative longitudinal survey of the Dutch population, we estimate the effects by inverse propensity score weighting in a difference-in-differences design in order to deal with unobserved heterogeneity and unbalanced covariate distribution between treated and control units potentially associated with the dynamics of the outcome variables. We find that, after job loss, individuals increase their network size by strengthening their closest contacts within the family, spending more time with neighbors, and making more use of social media. Although they devote their extra leisure time mostly to private activities, our results do not support the hypothesis of social exclusion following unemployment.

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Journal of Population Economics (JOPE)
JOPE (2022): CiteScore 9.2 (LINK) & Impact Factor 6.1; 524 K Downloads

December 4-6: Global Online GLO-JOPE Conference 2023 on ‘Population Economics’ with highlights of JOPE issues 3 & 4 of 2023 including the presentation of the JOPE 2024 Kuznets Prize. More information forthcoming.

JUST PUBLISHED
Volume 36, Issue 4, 2023. Covered issues: Historical demography; fertility and marriage; migration and refugee issues; health, vaccinations, risky behaviors; education; retirement; gender issues and preferences

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GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers)Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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