What’s the Melting Pot Worth? Multiculturalism and House Prices
Rachel Cho, Hisham Farag, Christoph Görtz, Danny McGowan, Huyen Nguyen, Max Schröder
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 11,
2025
Abstract
Is there a multicultural neighborhood price premium? We exploit plausibly exogenous variation in British colonization patterns in Northern Ireland during the early 1600s which created neighborhoods of varying religious composition that persists until today. These religious groups are culturally distinct, but are observationally equivalent ethnically and socioeconomically. A standard deviation increase neighborhood-level multiculturalism raises house prices by 9.6%. Multiculturalism raises property prices by increasing asset liquidity and housing demand as a wider spectrum of society demand houses in these areas. The findings and mechanism contrast sharply with prior evidence showing negative relationships due to homophily, social networks, and identification challenges.
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26.02.2025 • 7/2025
Presseeinladung zur IWH-Jahrestagung: „Fachkräftemangel in Deutschland" am 4. März 2025
Wie die Herausforderungen des Fachkräftemangels gemeistert werden können, diskutiert die Jahrestagung des Leibniz-Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH) mit Gästen aus Politik, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft. Es sprechen unter anderem Leonie Gebers, Staatssekretärin im Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, sowie Markus Behrens, Regionalchef Sachsen-Anhalt-Thüringen der Bundesagentur für Arbeit.
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The Distribution of National Income in Germany, 1992-2019
Stefan Bach, Charlotte Bartels, Theresa Neef
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 25,
2024
Abstract
This paper analyzes the distribution and composition of pre-tax national income in Germany since 1992, combining personal income tax returns, household survey data, and national accounts. Inequality rose from the 1990s to the late 2000s due to falling labor incomes among the bottom 50% and rising incomes in the top 10%. This trend reversed after 2007 as labor incomes across the bottom 90% increased. The top 1% income share, dominated by business income, remained relatively stable between 1992 and 2019. A large share of Germany’s top 1% earners are non-corporate business owners in labor-intensive professions. At least half of the business owners in P99-99.9 and a quarter in the top 0.1% operate firms in professional services – a pattern mirroring the United States. From 1992 to 2019, Germany’s top 0.1% income concentration exceeded France’s and matched U.S. levels until the late 2000s.
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Worker Beliefs about Outside Options
Simon Jäger, Christopher Roth, Nina Roussille, Benjamin Schoefer
Quarterly Journal of Economics,
No. 3,
2024
Abstract
Standard labor market models assume that workers hold accurate beliefs about the external wage distribution, and hence their outside options with other employers. We test this assumption by comparing German workers’ beliefs about outside options with objective benchmarks. First, we find that workers wrongly anchor their beliefs about outside options on their current wage: workers that would experience a 10% wage change if switching to their outside option only expect a 1% change. Second, workers in low-paying firms underestimate wages elsewhere. Third, in response to information about the wages of similar workers, respondents correct their beliefs about their outside options and change their job search and wage negotiation intentions. Finally, we analyze the consequences of anchoring in a simple equilibrium model. In the model, anchored beliefs keep overly pessimistic workers stuck in low-wage jobs, which gives rise to monopsony power and labor market segmentation.
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Media Response
Media Response June 2025 Oliver Holtemöller: Eine Frage der Ideologie in: nd DER TAG, 28.06.2025 Steffen Müller: 13,90 Euro pro Stunde - aber zu welchem Preis? in: FOCUS Online,…
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“Best Research Environment 2024”: IWH Financial Markets Department among the winning teams The IWH Financial Markets Department is one of ten scientific teams to receive the…
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IWH Bankruptcy Research The Bankruptcy Research Unit of the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) presents the Institute’s research on the topics of corporate bankruptcy,…
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DPE Course Programme Archive 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2025 Causal Machine Learning Martin Huber April 10-11, 2025 (IWH) Microeconomics…
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IWH Doctoral Programme in Economics The Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) offers doctoral positions in economics that lead to a PhD at a German university under the…
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