I can't forget about U: lifetime unemployment and retirement wellbeing

CLARK, Andrew; LEPINTEUR, Anthony

doi:10.1111/ecca.70007

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Article (Scientific journals)

I can't forget about U: lifetime unemployment and retirement wellbeing

CLARK, Andrew; LEPINTEUR, Anthony

2025 • In Economica, 92 (368), p. 1083 - 1100

Peer reviewed

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https://hdl.handle.net/10993/66735

DOI
10.1111/ecca.70007

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Keywords :

retirement; scarring; SHARE; unemployment; wellbeing; Economics and Econometrics

Abstract :

[en] It is well known that unemployment leaves scars after re-employment, but does this scarring effect persist even after retirement? We analyse European data on retirees from the SHARE panel, and show that the wellbeing of the retired continues to reflect the unemployment that they experienced over their working life. These scarring effects are somewhat smaller for older retirees, but larger for those who arguably had higher expectations regarding the labour market when they were active. The lower wellbeing from lifetime unemployment does not reflect lower retirement income. This long-run scarring for those who have left the labour market underlines that contemporaneous correlations significantly underestimate the wellbeing cost of unemployment.

Disciplines :

Special economic topics (health, labor, transportation...)

Author, co-author :

CLARK, Andrew ; University of Luxembourg ; Paris School of Economics, CNRS, France

LEPINTEUR, Anthony ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (DBCS) > Health and Behaviour

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

I can't forget about U: lifetime unemployment and retirement wellbeing

Publication date :

October 2025

Journal title :

Economica

ISSN :

0013-0427

eISSN :

1468-0335

Publisher :

John Wiley and Sons Inc

Volume :

Issue :

368

Pages :

1083 - 1100

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Additional URL :

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecca.70007

Funding text :

We are very grateful to the Editor, Henry Overman, and four anonymous referees for detailed and constructive comments. Andrew Clark acknowledges financial support from EUR grant ANR\u201017\u2010EURE\u20100001.

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since 11 December 2025

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