"Youngism: Experimental Evidence"
(Michal Bauer, Jana Cahlíková, Julie Chytilová)

Preferences over well-being of other generations shape family life, economic interactions, and political outcomes. This paper documents systematic preference-based discrimination against young adults, which we refer to as “youngism”, and shows that it is partly due to an inaccurate belief that young adults face relatively little hardship. Using controlled experimental tasks implemented among a nationally representative sample in the Czech Republic, we find that people allocate substantially less money to individuals who are relatively younger, as compared to their own age group or relatively older age groups. The observed discriminatory behavior is widespread, particularly severe among seniors, and similar in size to discrimination against immigrants and foreigners. On the constructive side, we show that this inter-generational divide can be reduced by a low-cost intervention. Most people underestimate the prevalence of mental health problems among young adults, and exogenous provision of accurate information increases prosocial behavior toward this group.