Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Juan de Dios Jiménez Aguilera
Author-Name: José María Martín Martín
Author-Name: Roberto Montero Granados
Title:  Felicidad, desempleo y crisis económica en Andalucía. Algunas evidencias
Abstract: {Resumen:}Se analiza cómo ha incidido la crisis económica en los niveles de felicidad y condiciones de vida registrados en estos últimos años en Andalucía. Para ello se han comparado indicadores objetivos, relacionados con el mercado de trabajo y la renta percibida en Andalucía, con indicadores personales extraídos de una encuesta específica (n=2.700) realizada en dos oleadas (años 2009 y 2011). Los resultados muestran una reducción significativa del nivel de felicidad de los andaluces, debido especialmente a  los desempleados de los centros urbanos y los desempleados menores de 25 años de zonas de interior. En un análisis sobre determinantes individuales, se refleja que la percepción que tiene los andaluces de sus condiciones de vida viene determinada por la situación de desempleo, renta, nivel de salud y nivel de estudios terminados. Esta última variable tiene un comportamiento a nuestro juicio inesperado, en el sentido de que a igualdad del resto de variables, reduce significativamente las valoraciones subjetivas de felicidad y condiciones de vida. También se observa un comportamiento adaptativo (conformismo) de parte de la población andaluza, que podría estar motivado por su menor nivel educativo.{Abstract:}This research paper analyzes the impact of the economic crisis in terms of happiness and living conditions in Andalusia. In order to do this, objective indicators of employment and income have  been compared with social indicators extracted from a specific survey (n=2700) developed in two phases (2009 and 2011). The results show a significant reduction of happiness levels in Andalusia, especially for unemployed people in urban areas and unemployed under the age of 25 living in inland regions. An analysis of individual determinants indicates that the perception of living conditions is determined by employment situation, incomes, health and levels of education. This last variable exhibits an unexpected behavior: subjective valuations of happiness and living conditions are considerably reduced as levels of education are higher. It is also observed that part of the Andalusian population shows an adaptive behavior –conformity-, probably due to a lower level of education.The study of the economic conditions–based on income and employment indicators- takes a prominent place in the social welfare analysis. Without underestimating other elements –such as access to education, health services, etc. -, the influence that employmentsituation and income level have on social welfare is so important that it is hard to find another economic issue whichgovernments and citizens of developed countriesshow as much interest in. An important point is to compare the differences that could exist between objective perception–expressed as socio-economic indicators data- and subjective –revealed by the individuals themselves-.The evolution of labour market in Andalusia was characterized by an important and constant reduction of the unemployment rate until 2006 –12.68%, one the lowest values in the last 30 years-. From then on, this value has grown and reached 34.59% in 2012. This growth was especially intense since 2008. During the period 2008-2010 unemployment rate in Andalusia increased by more than 10 percentage points, reaching 27.97%. This increase was translated into a reduction of both Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (2009) and Gross Disposable Household Income (GDHI) per capita (2010). Therefore, the comparison is now based on a better recent past. Gross Disposable Household Income per capita decreased for the first time by the end of 2010 in absolute and relative terms, which means that it will have an effect on personal assessments.This research work describes the relation between unemployment situation and the value of living conditions through three subjective indicators: Happiness Level (HL), Living Conditions (LC) and Household Economic Status (HES). They were estimated in 2009 and 2011. The perception of living conditions has been evaluated through a scale from 1 to 10 –HL, LC and HES-.The term “happiness” is often used to indicate a subjective enjoyment of life, which detaches itself from material conditions or material/objective welfare (Veenhoven, 2001). In this respect, evaluation of happiness (HL) allows us to identify the perception of some intangible aspects of life while living conditions (LC) and household economic status (HES) refer to the perception of material aspects.In a first approach, a descriptive research that studies the correlation of aggregated data has been carried out in order to check if the increase of unemployment rate in Andalusia may have caused a noticeable deterioration of some of the subjective indicators. This paper analyzes Andalusians’ self-assessment in this economic context. This analysis is particularly interesting due to a certain lack of applied research, even when quality of life research works have outlined the existence of adaptive situations. It is considered as a novelty the fact that this study is focused on a period of recession with strong job “destruction”.The fact that the data processing is based on a territorial division of Andalusia in four different geographic areas: mountain municipalities, inland municipalities and cities, regional capitals and coastal municipalities.This paper work analyzes which personal and territorial factors define self-assessment. Traditionally, the analyses around socio-economic conditions of population have been developed through quantitative indicators but research works based on subjective assessments have increased in importance in the last decades. Research papers have been carried out in different geographic areas and they have shown that objective and subjective dimensions rarely coincide, so there is an increasing interest in analyzing two both together (Erikson, 1993).The proximity between the two stages of the survey restricts the temporal analysis and there are not significant differences. This contrast could have been stronger if the time range had been bigger. However, it is observed a light decline in the three subjective indicators values. The largest drop corresponds to HL (Happiness Level), which falls 3.08%.Focusing on that indicator, it is noticed that the decline is especially significant for unemployed people –from 7.53 in 2009 to 6.98 in 2011-. Furthermore, the biggest fall was registered in HL for unemployed people living in regional capitals –from 7.58 to 6.94- and unemployed under the age of 25 living in inland regions –from 8.23 to 6.94-. That is, we can assume from the aggregate dynamic analysis that during that period there is a reduction of happiness levels in Andalusia, essentially due to unemployed people’ assessments.A second analysis describes the individual determinants of HL, LC and HES using multivariate regression models. The overall assessment is better as the indicator is more abstract: HES reaches 5.96 percentage points, LC 7.71 and HL 7.67. The most outstanding variables are: level of education, self-assessment of health status, employment situation and incomes. It is noticed that level of education and self-assessment of health status have a similar influence in employed and unemployed people. On the other hand, even though income always has a positive influence in population -a higher income implies higher levels of HL, LC and HES-, it is more relevant for unemployed people. Of course, a 1€ reduction of income have a bigger impact in unemployed people. Better health and higher income generally increase the indicators values while unemployment situation reduces them. The variable “level of education” shows an interesting behavior: a higher level of education usually implies a reduction in both of happiness level (HL) and the value of living conditions (LC). However, even when it is controlled by employment and income, level of education increase the value of household economic status (HES). This result could be the key to explain the adaptive behavior observed in Andalusia and it could be causing a decrease in the level of satisfaction not as big as in the values of employment and income indicators. This is because Andalusians–mostly with a low level of education- exhibit a higher happiness level and better living conditions than people with higher levels of education.The main objective of this research is to emphasize the importance of watching the evolution of living conditions and happiness level in order to evaluate the resultsof distributive policies, whose impact seems to be quite positive in Andalusia, as well as to detect population segments that could be at risk of social exclusion -unemployed under the age of 25, overqualified employees, etc.-. Future researches should compare the situation in Andalusia and other regions of Spain and Europe consulting different sources like “European Values Study” or “Quality of Working Life Survey”.
Classification-JEL: R1
Keywords: Mercado de trabajo, Felicidad, Condiciones de vida, Andalucía, Labour market, Happiness, Living conditions, Andalusia
Pages: 183-207
Volume: 1
Year: 2014
File-URL: http://www.revistaestudiosregionales.com/documentos/articulos/pdf-articulo-2436.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:rer:articu:v:1:y:2014:p:183-207