June 12, 2026 | News | PHD
Congratulations, Rishabh Tyagi!
Rishabh Tyagi successfully defended his dissertation, "The Disparate Effects of Employment Uncertainty on Life Course Outcomes," at the University of Oslo. In his thesis, he demonstrates that experiencing employment uncertainty due to job loss, unemployment, or workplace closures leads to negative health and family outcomes in Germany, Norway, and India.
Rishabh Tyagi with his PhD Diploma at the Doctoral Conferment Ceremony in the Aula.
He illustrates that such uncertainty leads to adverse family outcomes, including union dissolution and delayed childbearing, as well as negative effects on the mental health of parents of unemployed young adults. These adverse health and family outcomes are further shaped by individual characteristics, regional and contextual factors, and their interactions.
Labor market shocks adversely affect the family and health outcomes of disadvantaged subgroups more than those of advantaged subgroups, creating cumulative disadvantage for them. The mechanisms behind these adverse family and health outcomes extend beyond economic losses, such as loss of individual or household income following job displacement. They also include subjective employment uncertainty and declining family life satisfaction.
Since the thesis primarily focuses on Norway and Germany, which have relatively stable labor markets and extensive welfare states, the implications suggest that in less favorable economic and welfare contexts, the adverse effects of employment uncertainty on life-course outcomes may be more pronounced.
Rishabh Tyagi participated in the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health, and Data Science (IMPRS-PHDS), a doctoral program combining demography, epidemiology, and data science. His dissertation was supervised by Vegard Skirbekk (University of Oslo), Christian Dudel (MPIDR), Alexi Gugushvili (University of Oslo), Peter Eibich (Paris Dauphine University), and Mikko Myrskylä (MPIDR).
Rishabh with the Examination Committee and supervisors after his successful defense in Oslo. © private
Rishabh with colleagues and friends from Rostock after his defense in Oslo. © private
Related Publications
Tyagi, R.; Eibich, P.; Skirbekk, V. F.:
Genus 82, 1–22. (2026)
Tyagi, R.; Brini, E.; Vignoli, D.:
Social Science Research 137:103358, 1–16. (2026)
Tyagi, R.; Baranowska-Rataj, A.; Gugushvili, A.:
Social Science and Medicine - Population Health 33:101905, 1–20. (2026)
Upcoming Publication
Tyagi, R.:
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2024-026. (2024)