State-of-the-art review of spillovers over the life course
To better understand how social inequalities are produced, scholars should be aware of the multidimensionality of life courses and of the interdependency between life domains. Specifically, how changes introduced in one life domain can affect – sometimes unintentionally – other life domains. In this review, we summarise empirical causal evidence on policy spillover effects. We focus on studies covering two life pathways from childhood to adulthood, and from education to the labour market, covering spillover effects between the life domains of education, family, and employment.
The spillovers refer to unintended consequences or externalities, in our case changes in one life domain (such as the family) leading to unforeseen changes in another domain (such as the labour market).
While research studying the interdependencies between life domains, and the consequences of externalities or policies, the term spillover effect is not widely used, which makes it difficult to conduct systematic searches.
Some policy spillover effects have been more investigated than others. Under-researched policy spillover effects require theory development to motivate further research on the interdependency of life domains.