Beliefs About the Role of Effort and Luck During the Great Recession in Spain
ISBN: 978-1-78973-378-5, eISBN: 978-1-78973-377-8
Publication date: 16 September 2019
Abstract
The authors explore the effect of the recent unemployment shock in Spain on people’s beliefs about the role of effort as a determinant of economic position. They use a series of Spanish public opinion surveys between 2010 and 2018, matched with regional-level unemployment data and find that people attribute a larger role to luck in provinces where the unemployment rate increased more during the economic recession. This finding persists after controlling for a series of demographic, socio-economic and ideological individual-level variables. In addition, the authors find that lower educated individuals, and those who position themselves as more left-wing have adjusted their beliefs more, while individuals who identify as conservative have adjusted their beliefs less.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
We thank Elena Bárcena-Martín, Paolo Brunori, Marion Collewet, Matz Dahlberg, Tim Goedemé, Arnaud Lefranc, Brice Magdalou, Javier Olivera, Philippe Van Kerm, two anonymous referees and participants during presentations in Alba di Canazei (IT13 and IT14), Antwerp and Luxembourg for helpful comments.
Citation
Cabeza, B. and Decancq, K. (2019), "Beliefs About the Role of Effort and Luck During the Great Recession in Spain", Decancq, K. and Kerm, P.V. (Ed.) What Drives Inequality? (Research on Economic Inequality, Vol. 27), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 139-153. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1049-258520190000027010
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited