Western TV and Crimes against Foreigners in East Germany

Omar Fieles-Ahmad () and Michael Kvasnicka ()
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Omar Fieles-Ahmad: Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg
Michael Kvasnicka: Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg

No 18648, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Following reunification, anti-foreigner crimes rose sharply in the former GDR. Using county-level data for the early 1990s, we study if regional access to Western TV, i.e. non-socialist media, prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall had an impact on regional levels of serious anti-foreigner crime (murder and arson) in East Germany. We find that East German counties with no access to Western TV exhibit higher rates of such crimes, as in the ’valley of the clueless’ around Dresden. This crime-attenuating effect of Western TV proves robust in a battery of robustness checks and underscores the importance of media for anti-foreigner attitudes and crimes well before the rise of the internet and social media.

Keywords: crimes against foreigners; Western TV; immigration; East Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J15 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-mig
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