Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers
Creation-Date: 2021-01-04
Number: 21-002/VII
Author-Name: Maria Cotofan
Author-Workplace-Name: LSE
Author-Name: Lea Cassar
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Regensburg
Author-Name: Robert Dur
Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus University Rotterdam
Author-Name: Stephan Meijer
Author-Workplace-Name: Columbia Business School
Title: Macroeconomic Conditions When Young Shape Job Preferences for Life
Abstract: Preferences for monetary and non-monetary job attributes are important for understanding workers' motivation and the organization of work. Little is known, however, about how those job preferences are formed. We study how macroeconomic conditions when young shape workers' job preferences for the rest of their life. Using variation in income-per-capita across US regions and over time since the 1920s, we find that job preferences vary in systematic ways with experienced macroeconomic conditions during young adulthood. Recessions create cohorts of workers who give higher priority to income, whereas booms make cohorts care more about job meaning, for the rest of their life.
Classification-JEL: M5, D9, E7
Keywords: preferences for job attributes, experience, macroeconomic condition, generational difference
File-URL: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/21002.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 874160 bytes
Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20210002