The Effect of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction: A Cross-National Comparison Between Canada,Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States

This paper investigates the effect of unemployment on life satisfaction from a comparative perspective. It also tests whether the link between unemployment and life satisfaction is moderated or reinforced by contextual unemployment across regions within a country—either through a negative spillover or a positive social-norm effect, or both. The results suggest that noticeable non-pecuniary costs are associated with unemployment in the four countries studied. Cross-national differences also emerged in the impact of the moderating factors. Regional unemployment is a strong moderating factor of own unemployment in Canada and to a lesser extent in the United States; the effect is ambiguous in the United Kingdom and exacerbating in Germany. The results also support a negative spillover effect of regional unemployment on the employed in the United States and Germany, no spillover effect in the United Kingdom and, surprisingly, a positive overall spillover effect in Canada. Sensitivity testing further revealed that this Canadian anomaly was a phenomenon mainly in Atlantic Canada, not across the whole country.

     

“中国现代性”的追寻——对当代中国哲学发展主线的一种描述

The process of Chinese modernization is essentially the pursuit and the construction of Chinese modernity. This process has been the focus of modern and contemporary Chinese philosophy. It is embodied in the cultural and philosophical developments both during the period of Chinese Democratic Revolution and after the foundation of the People's Republic of China. It is especially the case during the Reform and Openness era. In the currently prevalent model of modernity,there are deep internal contradictions a...