On Friday 21 April 2023, Jad Moawad publicly defended his thesis at the University of Lausanne and received the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences. The thesis entitled "Social Classes and the Great Recession. Evidence from Europe and the United States" examines the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on the employment, wages and health of individuals from different social classes and backgrounds. This research was supervised by Prof. Daniel Oesch, PhD supervisor.
The theoretical framework is based on cumulative disadvantage theory and applies it to the context of the Great Recession. The empirical analysis is based on three major cross-country surveys: the Luxembourg Income Study, the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, and the European Social Survey.
The results show that the middle class did not suffer losses in employment or income between 1980 and 2020. In contrast, the working class has been the most affected in recent decades. The Great Recession has amplified this class inequality by widening the income gap between the working class and the upper middle class. Longitudinal data suggest that the working class has been affected not only in terms of income as a result of the Great Recession, but also in terms of health - particularly among individuals close to retirement. The thesis concludes that the 2008 financial crisis disproportionately affected the working class.
The LIVES Centre warmly congratulates Jad Moawad on this great achievement and wishes him the best for his professional future!
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President :
- Nicky LE FEUVRE, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of the social sciences (UNIL)
Membres du jury :
- Stéphanie STEINMETZ, Professor, UNIL
- Philipp HESSEL, Doctor in the Department of Public Health at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Allschwil, Switzerland
- Leire SALAZAR, Professor at the Department of Sociology of the University of Madrid, Spain
- Lucio BACCARO, Professor and Director of The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany