Occupational Status and Life Satisfaction in the UK: The Miserable Middle?

Yannis Georgellis; Andrew Clark; Emmanuel Apergis; Catherine Robinson

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2022.10.045

Occupational Status and Life Satisfaction in the UK: The Miserable Middle?

Yannis Georgellis, Andrew Clark, Emmanuel Apergis, Catherine Robinson

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We use British panel data to explore the link between occupational status and life satisfaction. We find puzzling evidence for men of a U-shaped relationship in cross-section data: employees in medium-status occupations report lower life satisfaction scores than those of employees in either low-or high-status occupations. This puzzle disappears in panel data: the satisfaction of any man rises as he moves up the status ladder. The culprit seems to be immobility: the miserable middle is caused by men who have always been in medium-status occupations. There is overall little evidence of a link between occupational status and life satisfaction for women, although this relationship for higher-educated women does look more like that for men.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	509-527
Number of pages	19
Journal	Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Volume	204
Early online date	7 Nov 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2022.10.045
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2022

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This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

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10.1016/j.jebo.2022.10.045Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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title = "Occupational Status and Life Satisfaction in the UK: The Miserable Middle?",

abstract = "We use British panel data to explore the link between occupational status and life satisfaction. We find puzzling evidence for men of a U-shaped relationship in cross-section data: employees in medium-status occupations report lower life satisfaction scores than those of employees in either low-or high-status occupations. This puzzle disappears in panel data: the satisfaction of any man rises as he moves up the status ladder. The culprit seems to be immobility: the miserable middle is caused by men who have always been in medium-status occupations. There is overall little evidence of a link between occupational status and life satisfaction for women, although this relationship for higher-educated women does look more like that for men.",

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author = "Yannis Georgellis and Andrew Clark and Emmanuel Apergis and Catherine Robinson",

note = "Funding Information: Data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) were supplied by the ESRC Data Archive. Neither the original collectors of the data nor the Archive bear any responsibility for the analysis or interpretations presented here. We thank Ying Zhou for useful discussions. Andrew Clark is grateful for support from EUR grant ANR-17-EURE-0001. Funding Information: Data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) were supplied by the ESRC Data Archive. Neither the original collectors of the data nor the Archive bear any responsibility for the analysis or interpretations presented here. We thank Ying Zhou for useful discussions. Andrew Clark is grateful for support from EUR grant ANR-17-EURE-0001 . Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022",

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doi = "10.1016/j.jebo.2022.10.045",

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T2 - The Miserable Middle?

AU - Georgellis, Yannis

AU - Clark, Andrew

AU - Apergis, Emmanuel

AU - Robinson, Catherine

N1 - Funding Information: Data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) were supplied by the ESRC Data Archive. Neither the original collectors of the data nor the Archive bear any responsibility for the analysis or interpretations presented here. We thank Ying Zhou for useful discussions. Andrew Clark is grateful for support from EUR grant ANR-17-EURE-0001. Funding Information: Data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) were supplied by the ESRC Data Archive. Neither the original collectors of the data nor the Archive bear any responsibility for the analysis or interpretations presented here. We thank Ying Zhou for useful discussions. Andrew Clark is grateful for support from EUR grant ANR-17-EURE-0001 . Publisher Copyright: © 2022

PY - 2022/12/1

Y1 - 2022/12/1

N2 - We use British panel data to explore the link between occupational status and life satisfaction. We find puzzling evidence for men of a U-shaped relationship in cross-section data: employees in medium-status occupations report lower life satisfaction scores than those of employees in either low-or high-status occupations. This puzzle disappears in panel data: the satisfaction of any man rises as he moves up the status ladder. The culprit seems to be immobility: the miserable middle is caused by men who have always been in medium-status occupations. There is overall little evidence of a link between occupational status and life satisfaction for women, although this relationship for higher-educated women does look more like that for men.

AB - We use British panel data to explore the link between occupational status and life satisfaction. We find puzzling evidence for men of a U-shaped relationship in cross-section data: employees in medium-status occupations report lower life satisfaction scores than those of employees in either low-or high-status occupations. This puzzle disappears in panel data: the satisfaction of any man rises as he moves up the status ladder. The culprit seems to be immobility: the miserable middle is caused by men who have always been in medium-status occupations. There is overall little evidence of a link between occupational status and life satisfaction for women, although this relationship for higher-educated women does look more like that for men.

KW - Occupational Status

KW - Life satisfaction

KW - Occupational mobility

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DO - 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.10.045

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VL - 204

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EP - 527

JO - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

JF - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

ER -

Occupational Status and Life Satisfaction in the UK: The Miserable Middle?

Abstract

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