Still different after all these years: Solidarity behavior in East and West Germany

Jeannette Brosig-Koch, Christoph Helbach, Axel Ockenfels and Joachim Weimann

Journal of Public Economics, 2011, vol. 95, issue 11, 1373-1376

Abstract: Using data from laboratory experiments, we find that East Germans show consistently less solidarity than West Germans; there has been no convergence in the 20years after the reunification. While it has recently been estimated that political values converge 20 to 40years after the reunification (Alesina and Fuchs-Schündeln, 2007), we conclude from our findings that social behavior changes more slowly than political values. We hypothesize that this is due to complementarities involved in individual social behavior and the necessity to coordinate on social norms on the society level.

Keywords: Experimental economics; Solidarity; Norms; Cross-culture study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D63 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (176)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:95:y:2011:i:11:p:1373-1376

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2011.06.002

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