Historical Antisemitism, Ethnic Specialization, and Financial Development

Francesco D’Acunto, Marcel Prokopczuk () and Michael Weber

No 23785, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: For centuries, Jews in Europe have specialized in financial services. At the same time, they have been the victims of historical antisemitism on the part of the Christian majority. We find that present-day financial development is lower in German counties where historical antisemitism was higher, compared to otherwise similar counties. Households in counties with high historical antisemitism have similar savings rates but invest less in stocks, hold lower bank deposits, and are less likely to get a mortgage–but not to own a house–after controlling for wealth and a rich set of current and historical covariates. Present-day antisemitism and supply-side forces do not appear to fully explain the results. Present-day households in counties where historical antisemitism was higher express lower trust in finance, but have levels of generalized trust similar to other households.

JEL-codes: D91 G11 J15 N90 Z10 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro
Note: AG AP CF DAE EFG LS POL
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Francesco D’Acunto & Marcel Prokopczuk & Michael Weber, 2019. "Historical Antisemitism, Ethnic Specialization, and Financial Development," The Review of Economic Studies, vol 86(3), pages 1170-1206.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23785.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Historical Antisemitism, Ethnic Specialization, and Financial Development (2019)
Working Paper: Historical Antisemitism, Ethnic Specialization, and Financial Development (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23785

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23785

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().