TY - RPRT AU - Winkelmann, Rainer TI - Unemployment, Social Capital, and Subjective Well-Being PY - 2006/Sep/ PB - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) CY - Bonn T2 - IZA Discussion Paper IS - 2346 UR - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp2346 AB - It has been shown in past research that unemployment has a large negative impact on subjective well-being of individuals. In this paper, I explore whether and to what extent people with more social capital are sheltered from the harmful effects of unemployment. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel 1984-2004, I find that social capital is an important predictor of well-being levels, but there is no evidence that it moderates the effect of unemployment on well-being. The well-being loss, in turn, is shown to predict job search and re-employment. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed, and suggestions for future research are given. KW - happiness KW - German Socio-Economic Panel KW - search KW - regression ER -