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Arioldi_2026_Elsevier_j.annale.2026.100221
Journal article

The partner penalty : exploring tourism jobs and life satisfaction relationships

  • Arioldi, Davide ORCID Istituto di ricerche economiche (IRE), Facoltà di scienze economiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • Vroegop, Eva Fondazione Campus, Lucca, Italy
  • 2026
Published in:
  • Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights. - 2026, vol. 7, no. 1, p. 100221
Hospitality
Partners
Satisfaction with life
Tourism
Work-family conflict
Workforce
English 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.
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Language
  • English
Classification
Economics
License
CC BY
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1336385
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