You’ll never walk alone: unemployment, social networks and leisure activities

Abstract We analyse how unemployment affects individuals’ social networks, leisure activities, and related satisfaction measures. We use the LISS panel, a representative longitudinal survey of the Dutch population. We estimate the effects by inverse propensity score weighting in a difference-in-differences design to deal with unobserved heterogeneity and unbalanced covariate distribution between treated and control units potentially associated with the dynamics of the outcome variables. We find that, after job loss, individuals increase their network size by strengthening their closest family contacts, spending more time with neighbours, and using social media more frequently. Additionally, our results show that job losers derive more enjoyment from their leisure time, with an increase in the time spent on private activities.