Dissertation

The disparate effects of employment uncertainty on life course outcomes

Abstract

Job loss and unemployment have long-lasting effects on individuals' career trajectories, as well as other life course outcomes. This doctoral thesis is based on four empirical studies in Germany, Norway, and India. The first study in the German context shows that experiencing involuntary job loss for men increases the risk of partnership dissolution by almost 65% within three years of the job loss. However, men with egalitarian gender attitudes (who perform a relatively higher share of housework and childcare among other men) did not experience an increased risk of partnership dissolution following job loss. The second and third studies examine the impact of employment uncertainty due to workplace closures on first and second birth outcomes in the Norwegian context. The first study at the individual level shows that experiencing a workplace closure does not affect men’s birth outcomes, while for women, there is a negative anticipation effect on birth outcomes before closure happens, and a positive effect on birth outcomes after workplace closure. The experience of workplace closure does not affect the total number of children at age 49 for either men or women. The third study takes a couple's perspective and finds that the Female partner’s job loss negatively influences couples’ decisions to become parents, while the male partner's job loss negatively influences the couple’s decisions to have second children. The negative effects of job loss are more pronounced for low-income couples. The fourth article finds a positive association between adult children's unemployment and their parents' risk of depression in the Indian context. Parents with high levels of social participation did not experience an increased risk of depression associated with their adult children's unemployment. Parents living in low or medium-income inequality states also experience a weaker association of children's unemployment with their own depression risk. This doctoral thesis demonstrates that employment uncertainty due to job loss and unemployment affects partnership dissolution risk, reproductive decisions, and mental health outcomes of their family, too. The extent to which these life course outcomes are affected is also shaped by the individual, regional and welfare characteristics.