June 16, 2018
Prof. Dr. Michael Gebel held a presentation on “The transition from education to work and youths’ well-being: Evidence from German panel data” at the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) Conference „Promotion of Quality of Life in the Changing World“ in Hong Kong. The ISQOLS is a global research organization with a mission to promote and encourage research in the field of quality-of-life, happiness, and wellbeing studies. Prof. Dr. Michael Gebel contributed to these aims with his SECCOPA study that examines how problematic school-to-work transitions affect subjective well-being in Germany. Using data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) he can show that there are substantial negative effects of experiencing initial unemployment on subjective well-being. Reemployment of unemployed youth diminishes the negative effects on SWB but still (small) “scar” effects on SWB remain. He finds persistent negative effects of experiencing initial temporary employment but the effects are just about quarter to half of size of the unemployment effects. There is stepping-stone function as finding a permanent job after initial temporary employment compensates for initial SWB losses.
