Unhappiness and Involuntary Unemployment: The Case of Ethnic Minority Men in Britain.

Using data from the Policy Studies Institute’s Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities in 1994, we estimate the determinants of happiness for white, black Caribbean and South Asian men in Britain using ordered probit models. After controlling for personal characteristics, we find that for each group, unemployment is associated with a significantly lower level of happiness compared to employment. Following the methodology of Clark and Oswald (1994), our results suggest that for white and ethnic minority men, unemployment is predominantly involuntary in Britain. Furthermore, we show that having a job per se, rather than the type of job, is the more important determinant of happiness.