The Subjective Well-Being of Workfare Participants: Insights from a Day Reconstruction Survey

24 Pages Posted: 25 Jun 2015

See all articles by Andreas Knabe

Andreas Knabe

Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg - Institute of Economics and Business Administration; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Ronnie Schöb

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); Freie Universitaet Berlin

Joachim Weimann

Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg - Institute of Economics and Business Administration; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Date Written: June 24, 2015

Abstract

In this paper, we shed more light on the subjective well-being of workfare participants and compare it to the well-being of unemployed and employed workers. We use data from a self-conducted survey among participants in workfare schemes in Germany. We examine two subdimensions of subjective well-being – life satisfaction and emotional well-being – separately to obtain a more comprehensive view of the subjective impact of workfare jobs. Our results show that the life satisfaction of workfare participants is between that of employed and unemployed people. More surprisingly, perhaps, we find that their emotional well-being is the highest of these three groups.

Keywords: workfare, unemployment, cognitive well-being, emotional well-being, life satisfaction, Day Reconstruction Method

JEL Classification: I310, J600, D600

Suggested Citation

Knabe, Andreas and Knabe, Andreas and Schöb, Ronnie and Schöb, Ronnie and Weimann, Joachim, The Subjective Well-Being of Workfare Participants: Insights from a Day Reconstruction Survey (June 24, 2015). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 5396, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2622380 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2622380

Andreas Knabe (Contact Author)

Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg - Institute of Economics and Business Administration ( email )

Universitaetsplatz 2
Magdeburg, 39016
Germany

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Ronnie Schöb

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Freie Universitaet Berlin ( email )

Boltzmannstraße 20
Berlin, Berlin 14195
Germany

Joachim Weimann

Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg - Institute of Economics and Business Administration ( email )

Universitaetsplatz 2
Magdeburg, 39016
Germany

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

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