Christoph Koenig (Università di Roma - Tor Vergata)

Mercoledì, 23 ottobre - ore 15:00 - Aula 3F (DEM)

Abstract:
This projects studies the effects of personal unemployment experience during the transition from Communism in the 1990s. In order to answer this question, we use detailed work-life histories and rich survey data for about 24,000 individuals across 12 Eastern European countries as well as a novel dataset on region-sector level employment shocks. Using a shift-share-type IV, we find that transition unemployment had adverse effects on current-day life satisfaction, socio-economic status, health and mental well-being. We apply a causal mediation analysis to disentangle the different effects. Finally, our results also suggest that the transition may have also had deeper social consequences across Eastern Europe and led to a decline in trust and political participation.