Incompatible European Partners? Cultural Predispositions and Household Financial Behavior

Michael Haliassos, Yigitcan Karabulut and Thomas Jansson

No 10039, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: The Eurozone fiscal crisis has created pressure for institutional harmonization, but skeptics argue that cultural predispositions can prevent convergence in behavior. Our paper derives a robust cultural classification of European countries and utilizes unique data on natives and immigrants. Classification based on genetic distance or on Hofstede?s cultural dimensions fails to identify a single ?southern? culture but points to a ?northern? culture. Our findings support the relevance of cultural predispositions for financial behavior; and convergence of behavior over time in the face of common institutions, even for countries with great cultural distance from the country that created those institutions.

Keywords: Culture; Household portfolios; Household finance; Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 G11 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-06
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Incompatible European Partners? Cultural Predispositions and Household Financial Behavior (2017)
Working Paper: Incompatible European Partners? Cultural Predispositions and Household Financial Behavior (2015)
Working Paper: Incompatible European partners? Cultural predispositions and household financial behavior (2015)
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