Historical shocks and persistence of economic activity: evidence from a unique natural experiment

Michael Fritsch (), Alina Sorgner, Michael Wyrwich and Evguenii Zazdravnykh ()

HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics

Abstract: This paper investigates the persistence of entrepreneurship in the region of Kaliningrad between 1925 and 2010. During this time period the area experienced a number of extremely disruptive shocks including; devastation caused by World War II, a nearly complete replacement of the native German population by Soviets, and 45 years under an anti-entrepreneurial socialist economic regime followed by a shock-type transition to a market economy. Nevertheless, we find a surprisingly high level of persistence of industry-specific self-employment rates in the districts of the Kaliningrad region. Our analysis suggests that persistence of entrepreneurship is higher in regions with a history of successful entrepreneurship. That is, in regions where a specific industry was particularly efficient and entrepreneurial activity was especially pronounced.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; regional culture; persistence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L26 N94 P25 P5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-ino and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in WP BRP Series: Economics / EC, July 2016, pages 1-42

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Related works:
Working Paper: Historical Shocks and Persistence of Economic Activity: Evidence from a Unique Natural Experiment (2016)
Working Paper: Historical Shocks and Persistence of Economic Activity: Evidence from a Unique Natural Experiment (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hig:wpaper:143/ec/2016

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