Download This PaperMacroeconomic Conditions When Young Shape Job Preferences for Life
38 Pages Posted: 13 Apr 2020 Last revised: 6 May 2025
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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 macroeconomic conditions. 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.
Keywords: macroeconomic condition, experience, preferences for job attributes, generational dierence
JEL Classification: D9, E7, J2, M5
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)
Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany
IZA Institute of Labor Economics
P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany
Stephan Meier
Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Management ( email )
3022 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
United States
IZA Institute of Labor Economics
P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany