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New study by Hubert János Kiss and Tamás Keller in Applied Economics Letters

Published online: 1 Mar 2021

The short-term effect of COVID-19 on schoolchildren’s generosity


Hubert János Kiss &
Tamás Keller

Abstract

We conduct two waves (W1 and W2) of an unincentivized online survey to measure the change in altruism of primary school students (N = 983) towards classmates and schoolmates during the school closures due to COVID-19. The W1 responses arrived, on average, after 39 days of online education, while W2 responses arrived, on average, 31 days after W1. There was no significant change in generosity both towards classmates and schoolmates between waves. Students with better cognitive abilities are less likely to become selfish towards schoolmates.

Keywords: Altruism, children, generosity, social preferences

JEL lassification: C99 D91 I24