Weathering the storm together: Does unemployment insurance help couples avoid divorce?

This study examines whether unemployment insurance benefit generosity impacts divorce, drawing on full population administrative data and a Swiss reform that reduced unemployment insurance maximum benefit duration. We assess the effect of the reform by comparing the pre- to the post-reform change in divorce rates among unemployed individuals who were affected by the reform with the change in divorce rates among a statistically balanced group of unemployed individuals who was not affected by the reform. Difference-in-differences estimates suggest that the reform caused a 2.8 percentage point increase in divorce (a 25% increase). Effects were concentrated among low-income couples (+58%) and couples with an unemployed husband (+32%) though gender differences are attributable to men's breadwinner status. Female main breadwinners were more strongly affected (+78%) than male main breadwinners (+40%). Results confirm the 'family stress model' which posits that job search and financial stress cause marital conflict. Policymakers should consider a broad array of impacts, including divorce, when considering reductions in unemployment insurance generosity.

Changing attitudes about the impact of women's employment on families: The COVID-19 pandemic effect.

We use representative longitudinal panel data from the Dutch European Values Survey (EVS) to study whether the COVID-19 pandemic shifted opinions about how a woman's full-time employment impacts family life. The data was collected before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2017 and in May 2020. The analysis focuses on groups whose unpaid and paid work situation changed abruptly with the COVID-19 pandemic: parents with coresident children, and those who experienced a change in paid workload that clashes with traditional gender role expectations, namely women whose workload increased and men whose workload decreased or who stopped working. We found that groups that faced an abrupt change in their paid and unpaid work routines that clashed with their previously held gender attitude changed their gender attitude in alignment with the new paid or unpaid work situation. For women in couple households with children, this meant that they saw a halt in their progression toward gender egalitarian attitudes. For those who experienced a change in paid workload that clashes with traditional gender role norms, it meant stronger progression toward gender egalitarian attitudes. The results are interpreted on the basis of cognitive dissonance theory and exposure theory and placed in the context of previous findings.

The gendered consequences of the COVID-19 lockdown on unpaid work in Swiss dual earner couples with children.

This article assesses the gendered impact of COVID-19 measures on changes in time that Swiss dual earner couples spent on unpaid work during the pandemic, focusing on families with children. Overcoming some of the methodological shortcomings of previous studies, high-quality representative panel data allow us to examine the change in time invested in housework and childcare before and during the pandemic, and test theoretical assumptions as to the mechanisms underlying the observed patterns. Gender inequalities are explained by the couple's work division prior to, and at the onset of, the pandemic and interpreted in the light of key theoretical approaches (economics of the family, bargaining and time availability, doing gender). Our results imply that in particular changes in the time availability of the partner are relevant for changes in time spent on housework, while in case of care work, the own time availability matters more. Moreover, we also found that the respondents' economic bargaining power within the couple matters both for housework and care work. Finally, the implemented COVID-19 measures neither led to an increase in patriarchal power structures nor did they foster an increase in equality for unpaid work among women and men. Instead, the results show that changes in time availability due to short-time, remote or overtime working schemes determined changes in time spent on unpaid care to a larger extent than gender alone.

The paradox of local inequality: Meritocratic beliefs in unequal localities.

A puzzle has emerged amidst rising inequality: why do people profess high levels of belief in meritocracy even as income gains are increasingly concentrated at the top? In light of contradictory theories and evidence, we undertake the first assessment of the relationship between local income inequality and meritocratic beliefs outside the United States, using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. We find that the positive relationship between country-level income inequality and meritocratic beliefs identified in the recent literature does not translate straightforwardly below country level: there is no robust relationship between local income inequality and meritocratic beliefs in England. However, there is a robust-and somewhat paradoxical-positive association between high local income inequality and meritocratic beliefs among those with the lowest incomes. On average, respondents with annual household incomes of £10,000 are five points more likely (on a 100-point scale) to believe their hard work will pay off if they live in the most rather than the least unequal places in England. We also show that this applies beyond the specific case of meritocratic beliefs: low-income respondents in unequal places are also notably more satisfied with their own (low) income than similar respondents in more equal localities. In line with system justification theory, we argue that belief in meritocracy serves as an important tool of psychological resilience for low-income individuals who regularly come into contact with others more economically fortunate than themselves: though it legitimates their current position at the bottom of the status hierarchy, this belief also offers the promise of future advancement. While this reduces concern about the psychological effects of growing local income inequality on the most economically vulnerable, it also suggests that there is little prospect of demand for systemic economic change emerging from what might have been considered the most likely places.

Linked lives, linked retirement? Relative income differences within couples and gendered retirement decisions in Europe.

Our article investigates the role of relative income distributions within couples for individuals' retirement risks. It addresses the following questions: How does the share someone provides to the couple income affect that person's retirement decision? What gender differences do we observe and what contextual factors can explain country differences? Our multilevel analyses draw on data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) study (2010-2016), comparing 26 countries. The results show that female main earners transition to retirement earlier than female secondary earners as they approach the official retirement age. This effect is even stronger in countries with more traditional gender norms. The opposite pattern is found for men, whereby male secondary earners retire earlier than male main earners in more gender traditional societies. We explain this finding on the basis of doing gender theories, which predict that gender-atypical behaviour in one area of life is compensated by traditional gender behaviour in other areas, especially in contexts with traditional gender norms. A further finding relates to the generosity of the country's pension replacement rate, which shows to be a factor facilitating retirement especially for those with an equal earning partner.

Pain in Dupuytren's disease.

To investigate pain in patients with Dupuytren disease, we analyzed the literature on pre- and post-interventional pain and complex regional pain syndrome. The pre-interventional pain intensity score of primary Dupuytren ranged from 0.3/10 to 2.0/10. One year after surgery or needle fasciotomy, no significant change of pain could be found. Collagenase therapy significantly reduced the mean pain intensity score from 1.3/10 [SD 2.2] to 0.5/10 [1.5] (p<0.01) after one year. The prevalence of complex regional pain syndrome after fasciectomy ranged from 0% to 12.8%, after needle fasciotomy from 0% to 6.3%, and after collagenase therapy from 0% to 3.0%. We conclude that for most Dupuytren patients, pain is not an issue. A minority seems to suffer pain and collagenase treatment appears to reduce this complaint significantly. However, complex regional pain syndrome is a known complication of Dupuytren treatment, with a low incidence after minimal invasive treatment.

Hard times and European youth. The effect of economic insecurity on human values, social attitudes and well-being.

While economic downturns have adverse effects on young people's life chances, empirical studies examining whether and to what extent human values, social attitudes and well-being indicators respond to sudden economic shocks are scarce. To assess the claim that human values are less affected by economic shocks than social attitudes and well-being, two distinct yet related studies based on the European Social Survey (ESS) are conducted. The first employs a fixed effects pseudo-panel analysis of the 2008-2014 ESS-waves to detect whether changes over time in the socio-demographic group's unemployment risk and national youth unemployment affect individual dispositions to varying degrees. The second study captures micro- and cross-national effects in the 2010 ESS cross-section. Unique for this set-up is that we can test whether the findings hold for over-time changes in youth unemployment within countries (pseudo-panel), as well as for cross-country differences in youth unemployment (multilevel). Both studies indicate that political trust, satisfaction with the economy and subjective well-being are lowered by economic risk and hardship, while social trust and self-rated health are less affected by changes in youth unemployment. Secondly, human values are immune to economic risk, underscoring that values transcend specific situations and are therefore resistant against sudden economic shocks.