The short and long term effects of government training on subjective well being

Abstract

This paper analyses the effect of participation in government training on subjective well-being. I use use Strandh's (2001) extension of Jahoda (1982) and Fryer's (1986) theories on the relationship between subjective well-being and labour market status as the theoretical framework. This extension suggests that participation in government training raises the subjective well-being of the unemployed and it furthermore predicts a long-term effect of previous participation on well-being. I analyse data from the first 13 waves of a longitudinal data, the British Household Panel Survey, using the Mundlak extended random effect model. I find that both current and previous participation in government training has positive effects on subjective well-being, although the effect of previous participation decreases over time.