Arioldi, Davide Vroegop, Eva 2026 This study investigates how tourism employment affects life satisfaction — not only for workers themselves, but also for their partners — using European Social Survey data from 30 countries (2002−2022). Tourism workers report lower life satisfaction, which is largely attributable to socioeconomic factors. However, partners of tourism workers experience an even larger reduction in life satisfaction — a ‘partner penalty’ exceeding the estimated effect of divorce. This life satisfaction penalty for partners is concentrated among men and families with children, suggesting that gender norms and caregiving responsibilities play a central role. Notably, dual-tourism couples do not exhibit this penalty, consistent with shared occupational understanding. Proxy indicators suggest time-based work-family conflict, including disrupted family time and reduced social interactions, as a plausible mechanism. application/pdf https://susi.usi.ch/global/documents/336385 https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1336385 https://susi.usi.ch/documents/336385/files/Arioldi D. and Vroegop E. 2026. The partner penalty - Exploring tourism jobs and life satisfaction relationships.pdf eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1016/j.annale.2026.100221 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/ark/12658/srd1336385 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC BY Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights. - 2026, vol. 7, no. 1, p. 100221 Hospitality Partners Satisfaction with life Tourism Work-family conflict Workforce info:eu-repo/classification/udc/33 The partner penalty : exploring tourism jobs and life satisfaction relationships http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501