Referierte Aufsätze Web of Science
Mariia Bondar, Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln
In: German Economic Review 24 (2023), 1, 97-119
In this paper, we document that living under Communism vs. Capitalism has lasting effects on preferences for a strong government. Relying on the natural experiment of German reunification and extending the analysis of Alesina and Fuchs-Schündeln (2007), we show that East Germans still have stronger preferences for redistribution than West Germans 27 years after reunification. While convergence of preferences occurs, the speed of convergence decreases significantly over time. Even young East Germans exhibit stronger pro-state preferences, a result of intergenerational transmission of preferences.
Keywords: German reunification, preferences for redistribution, endogenous preferences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2022-0042