Recession experiences during early adulthood shape prosocial attitudes later in life

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bietenbeck, Jan; Sunde, Uwe; Thiemann, Petra
• 署名单位: Lund University; University of Munich; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; Leibniz Association; DIW Berlin - Deutsches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105327
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: Prosocial attitudes; Impressionable years; Experience effects; Cohort effects

摘要

This paper explores whether the experience of a recession during early adulthood shapes individuals' prosocial attitudes. The analysis uses survey responses to experimentally validated questions that measure prosocial attitudes for approximately 64,000 respondents in 74 countries. The identification approach exploits variation in recession experiences across 75 different birth cohorts. We find that exposure to a recession during early adulthood is associated with lower levels of prosociality later in life. The effect only emerges for experiences during the impressionable years (age 18-25), mainly affects prosocial attitudes among men, and is orthogonal to the effect of experiences with democracy.