The social capital legacy of communism-results from the Berlin Wall experiment

Peter Boenisch and Lutz Schneider
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Peter Bönisch

European Journal of Political Economy, 2013, vol. 32, issue C, 391-411

Abstract: In this paper we establish a direct link between the communist history, the resulting structure of social capital, and attitudes toward spatial mobility. We argue that the communist regime induced a specific social capital mix that discouraged geographic mobility even after its demise. Theoretically, we integrate two branches of the social capital literature into one more comprehensive framework distinguishing an open type and a closed type of social capital. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) we take advantage of the natural experiment that separated Germany into two parts after the WWII to identify the causal effect of social capital on mobility. We estimate a three equation ordered probit model and provide strong empirical evidence for our theoretical propositions.

Keywords: Communism; Social capital; Mobility; Institutional transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C36 P36 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:32:y:2013:i:c:p:391-411

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2013.09.007

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