Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/229708 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. TI 2021-002/VII
Publisher: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
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.
Subjects: 
preferences for job attributes
experience
macroeconomic condition
generational difference
JEL: 
M5
D9
E7
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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