Discussion Papers

Subjective Well-being of Involuntary Non-regular Employees:Evidence from Japanese Household Panel Data

DP Number SDP2012-005
Language 日本語・英語
Date March, 2013
Author Isamu Yamamoto, Risa Hagiwara
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Abstract

This paper investigates whether non-regular employees are worse off with their
employment status, by examining the subjective well-being measured by the mental
health index based on the individual panel data drawn from the Keio Household Panel
Survey (2004 through 2012). We find that the majority of non-regular employees
intentionally choose their employment status, as involuntary non-regular employment
accounted for 3.5% of the entire sample, and 16.0% of non-regular employment. We also
find that once controlling for the individual fixed effects, the subjective well-being does
not differ among employment status except for the involuntary non-regular employment.
Specifically, non-regular employees are not necessarily worse off as far as they
intentionally choose their employment status. If they involuntarily choose the
non-regular employment, however, they tend to experience poor mental health and thus
their subjective well-being would be lowered. These results imply the importance of the
separation of non-regular employment into the voluntary and involuntary one.