East Prussia 2.0: Persistent regions, rising nations

Maria Polugodina and Theocharis Grigoriadis

No 2020/8, Discussion Papers from Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the economic and political effects of the breakup of East Prussia into what is today Poland, Russia and Lithuania. We explore the dissolution of imperial regions into the boundaries of modern states, adding new insights to the research on the imperial legacies. We expect that German imperial legacies in the form of advanced economic institutions, and specifically East Prussian legacies of nationalistic and conservative political preferences, persist in the territories of former East Prussia in Poland, Russia and Lithuania compared to neighboring regions in their respective countries. We find no pattern of persistence in former East Prussian territories of contemporary Poland, whereas East Prussian persistence appears to be robust in Lithuania. We find strong evidence for the comparative persistence of political preferences in the Kaliningrad region, whereas we observe no economic spillovers. Drawing evidence from West German electoral data in the aftermath of World War II, we find that the presence of East Prussian refugees is conducive to conservative and nationalist support in the FRG. Hence, the East Prussian legacy relates primarily to the persistence of political preferences and migrating agents.

Keywords: institutions; political economy; political preferences; migration; East Prussia; West Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 N74 O52 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-cis, nep-gen, nep-his, nep-tra and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: East Prussia 2.0: Persistent regions, rising nations (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:20208

DOI: 10.17169/refubium-26889

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