Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/80629 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7413
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper provides a model of social hysteresis whereby long, deep recessions demotivate workers and thereby lead them to change their work ethic. In switching from a pro-work to an anti-work identity, their incentives to seek and retain work fall and consequently their employment chances fall. In this way, temporary recessions may come to have permanent effects on aggregate employment. We also show that these permanent effects, along with the underlying identity switches, can be avoided through stabilization policy. The size of the government expenditure multiplier can be shown to depend on the composition of identities in the workforce.
Subjects: 
economics of identity
work ethic
hysteresis
business cycle policy
JEL: 
E24
E60
J21
J28
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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