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Appel à Communications: Les relations industrielles dans un monde du travail en mutation

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The Unintended Consequences of Austerity: Mental Health and Job Satisfaction in the Public Sector

Seminar

Series: LISER Research Seminar

English

The Unintended Consequences of Austerity: Mental Health and Job Satisfaction in the Public Sector

When:

TUE, 21 APR 2026

From:

11:00 AM

To:

12:30 PM

Where:

Hybrid

The Unintended Consequences of Austerity: Mental Health and Job Satisfaction in the Public Sector

Joint work by Andrew Clark (Paris School of Economics), Maria Cotofan (King’s College London), and Jonathan Wadsworth (Royal Holloway).

A growing literature has shown that the austerity measures introduced in the UK starting in 2010 affected a wide range of social and economic outcomes. However, little is known about their impact on workers in the public sector where service-provision funding was directly targeted. We carry out both a difference-in-difference analysis and appeal to variation in the extent of spending cuts at the local level to show how austerity affected public- versus private-sector workers. We find that public-sector workers suffered disproportionately: they increasingly quit the public sector post-austerity, and the workers who remain report persistently higher levels of anxiety and depression caused by their work, as well as lower job satisfaction compared to their private-sector peers. A decade after the start of austerity, significant negative impacts remain apparent. These findings have substantial implications for the welfare of public-sector workers, and raise important questions regarding the delivery of vital public services.

Speaker