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Research Seminar: Underemployment and Wellbeing in the European Union

Location
De Montfort University, Hugh Aston 1.82.
Date(s)
06/02/2019 (14:30-16:30)
Contact
Jonathan Payne (jpayne@dmu.ac.uk)
Description
It is well known that underemployment can have substantial negative consequences for wellbeing, but most previous studies have focused on single countries or occupational groups and examined single dimensions of under-employment. This paper, by contrast, contributes to the debate by examining experiences across a number of European economies and by exploring different dimensions of under-employment, including the gap between hours of work and workers’ desired hours and the under-utilisation of their skills and abilities.

The paper uses data from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and explains differences in the consequences of underemployment for wellbeing by drawing on contributions to the literature on international comparative political economy, particularly that relating to comparative welfare regimes (Esping-Andersen 1990; Ferragina et al. 2015).

We investigate whether the relationship between underemployment and wellbeing differs according to the welfare regime within workers are employed. We also look for differences in the experiences of men and women. Our findings demonstrate the relevance of comparative institutional analysis to our understanding of cross-national variations in the relationship between under-employment and wellbeing.

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