Demography, workforce economy, social and economic policy

Trends of standard of living preferences of economics university students as a result of the economic crisis

Economic Annals-XXI

Economic Annals-ХХI: Volume 190, Issue 5-6(2), Pages: 181-195

Citation information:
Zéman, Z., Kálmán, B., & Bárczi, J. (2021). Trends of standard of living preferences of economics university students as a result of the economic crisis. Economic Annals-XXI, 190(5-6(2)), 181-195. doi: https://doi.org/10.21003/ea.V190-17

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Zoltán Zéman
D.Sc. (Economics),
Full Professor,
Department of Investment, Finance and Accounting,
Institute of Regional Development and Sustainable Economics,
Szent István Campus,
Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences
1 Páter Károly Str., Gödöllő, H-2100, Hungary
Zeman.Zoltan@uni-mate.hu
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2504-028X

Botond Kálmán
MSc (Economics),
PhD Student (Economics),
Doctoral School of Economic and Regional Sciences,
Szent István Campus,
Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences
1 Páter Károly Str., Gödöllő, H-2100, Hungary
Kalman.Botond@phd.uni-mate.hu
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8031-8016

Judit Bárczi
D.Sc. (Economics),
Associate Professor,
Department of Investment, Finance and Accounting,
Institute of Regional Development and Sustainable Economics,
Szent István Campus,
Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences
1 Páter Károly Str., Gödöllő, H-2100, Hungary
Barczi.Judit@uni-mate.hu
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5713-0541

Abstract. One of today’s central subject ranges is the theme of personal financial decisions. Standard of living preferences are also closely related to these. The generation that will soon enter the labor market still has these questions in front of them. This is the reason why we focused on university students in our study. We asked Hungarian, Austrian, and Slovak economics students in our questionnaire research. We conducted the study in 2 successive years, in the autumn of 2019 and the autumn of 2020. The first phase of the coronavirus pandemic happened between the two occasions. We examined the received responses along the lines of demographic variables, with the application of linear modelling and decision trees. The year was proven to be the most important variable, which indicates that the crisis caused by the coronavirus had a significant effect on the ideas of students regarding a better standard of living. Our results not only highlight the importance of financial literacy, but also show that personal opinions transform in a crisis regarding the criteria that embody a higher standard of living. It appears that a severe economic crisis increases the sense of responsibility and the importance of future security. Of course, because of the short time that passed, the practical verification of our findings will have to wait.

Keywords: Financial Literacy; University Students; Standard of Living; Preferences; Economic Crisis

JEL Classification: A23; G53; M59

Acknowledgements and Funding: The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Contribution: The authors contributed equally to this work.

Data Availability Statement: The dataset is available from the authors upon request.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21003/ea.V190-17

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Received 19.04.2021
Received in revised form 15.05.2021
Accepted 29.05.2021
Available online 10.07.2021

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