Students’ Attitudes Towards Economic Growth and Income Inequalities: Does the Field of Study Matter?

A basic premise of university educators is that studying has impact on students. We examine attitudes of university studentstowards economic growth and income inequalities. We ask what kind of association exists between different study disciplines andstudents’ attitudes towards issues linked to the notion of the welfare state. We also examine whether such attitudes are alteredduring the course of one’s studies. The longitudinal data used is based on internet questionnaires sent to students at Finnishuniversities between 2005 and 2008. Empirical results suggest that the overall response profile of economics and business studentsdiffer from those in other fields. In addition, for most disciplines, attitudes do not change considerably over the course of one’sstudies.