Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Papers,
Lund University, Department of Economics

No 2023:9: Recession Experiences During Early Adulthood Shape Prosocial Attitudes Later in Life

Jan Bietenbeck (), Uwe Sunde () and Petra Thiemann ()
Additional contact information
Jan Bietenbeck: Department of Economics, Lund University, Postal: School of Economics and Management, Box 7080, S-220 07 Lund, Sweden
Uwe Sunde: University of Munich (LMU)
Petra Thiemann: Department of Economics, Lund University, Postal: School of Economics and Management, Box 7080, S-220 07 Lund, Sweden

Abstract: This paper explores whether the experience of a severe recession during early adulthood shapes individuals’ prosocial attitudes. The analysis uses survey responses to experimentally validated questions that measure prosocial attitudes for approximately 65,000 respondents in 75 countries. The identification approach exploits variation in recession experiences across 78 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 impressionable years (age 18-25), mainly affects prosocial attitudes among men, and is orthogonal to the effect of experiences with democracy.

Keywords: Prosocial attitudes; impressionable years; experience effects; cohort effects; economic shocks

JEL-codes: D91; E30; E71

Language: English

43 pages, August 25, 2023

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