The long-term effect of early-life war exposure on prosocial preference: Evidence from the Korean War

Abstract

This paper explores the long-term effects of early-life exposure to the Korean War, which is considered one of the most destructive conflicts of the modern era with a high proportion of civilian deaths, on people’s prosocial preference. Hypothetical willingness to contribute to public goods was used to measure individual’s prosocial preference. Our main analysis relates geographic and temporal variations of battles in changes in willingness to contribute to public goods. The results imply that more intense war violence, especially during infancy (age 0), has a negative effect on male respondents’ willingness to contribute to public goods. On the other hand, we do not find any evidence of a statistically significant effect on female respondents’ willingness to contribute to public goods.