The impact of the great recession on social preferences and attitudes in Europe

• Autor(a) principal: Gerstner, Wenzel Josef
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/21076
• topic: Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

This paper analyzes the impact economic perceptions have on social preferences and whether this impact has changed during the course of the Great Recession. I begin by documenting the development social preferences and economic perceptions take during the period analyzed (2002-2014). In the crisis year almost all of these variables exhibit a decreasing trend. There have been evidences in the literature for a stark impact of economic perceptions on a multiplicity of attitudes. However, the analysis of the development of this impact during a recession represents a gap in the literature. My findings underline the powerful role economic perceptions play on three branches: Trust in policy, immigration and redistribution. During the Great Recession the impact of assessments of the economy did mostly stay stable, while economic self-assessments had a significantly increasing impact. Given the increased anxiety during times of economic turmoil, it is no surprise that the impact of economic self-assessments on social preferences and attitudes got intensified.