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UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES)

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Does growing up in a recession increase compassion? The case of attitudes towards immigration

28 October 2022, 1:00 pm–2:00 pm

A black and white image of people holding hands

A SSEES CCSEE seminar with Dr Maria Cotofan (King’s College London)

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

SSEES

Location

Masaryk Room
UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies
16 Taviton steret
London
WC1H 0BW

In this seminar, Dr Cotofan will discuss the persistent impact of macroeconomic conditions during young adulthood on people's attitudes and preferences. There is strong evidence that bad macroeconomic circumstances during young adulthood strengthen attitudes against immigration for the rest of people's lives. In addition, growing up in difficult macroeconomic times increases parochialism, i.e. people become more outgroup hostile --- not just against immigrants. The underlying motive for more government redistribution in response to a recession does not originate from a universal increase in compassion, but rather seems to be more self-interested and restricted to one's ingroup. The working paper can be found here.

Speaker info

Maria is a Lecturer in Economics and Policy at the Department of Political Economy. She is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Economics Performance at the LSE and at the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University. Previously, Maria was a Research Officer at the Centre for Economic Performance (LSE) and she holds a PhD from Erasmus University. She works predominantly in policy evaluation and on topics such as inequality, the effects of deprivation and of poor economic experiences, and the well-functioning of labour markets.


Image credit: Kat Smith, Pexels