Individualism and the Formation of Human Capital
Katharina Hartinger, Sven Resnjanskij, Jens Ruhose, Simon Wiederhold
Journal of the European Economic Association,
forthcoming
Abstract
There is an ongoing debate about the economic effects of individualism. We establish that individualism leads to better educational and labor market outcomes. Using data from the largest international adult skill assessment, we identify the effects of individualism by exploiting variation between migrants at the origin country, origin language, and person level. Migrants from more individualistic cultures have higher cognitive skills and larger skill gains over time. They also invest more in their skills over the life-cycle, as they acquire more years of schooling and are more likely to participate in adult education activities. In fact, individualism is more important in explaining adult skill formation than any other cultural trait that has been emphasized in previous literature. In the labor market, more individualistic migrants earn higher wages and are less often unemployed. We show that our results cannot be explained by selective migration or omitted origin-country variables.
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Voting under Debtor Distress
Jakub Grossmann, Štěpán Jurajda
Electoral Studies,
June
2025
Abstract
There is growing evidence on the role of economic conditions in the recent successes of populist and extremist parties. However, little is known about the role of over-indebtedness, even though debtor distress has grown in Europe following the financial crisis. We study the unique case of the Czech Republic, where by 2017, nearly one in ten citizens had been served at least one debtor distress warrant even though the country consistently features low unemployment. Our municipality-level difference-in-differences analysis asks about the voting consequences of a rise in debtor distress following a 2001 deregulation of consumer-debt collection. We find that debtor distress has a positive effect on support for (new) extreme right and populist parties, but a negative effect on a (traditional) extreme-left party. The effects of debtor distress we uncover are robust to whether and how we control for economic hardship; the effects of debtor distress and economic hardship are of similar magnitude, but operate in opposing directions across the political spectrum.
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10.04.2025 • 14/2025
In East Germany, as in the west, the economy is in crisis - Implications of the Joint Economic Forecast Spring 2025 and new data for the East German economy
In 2024, the economy in East Germany shrank by 0.1% and in Germany as a whole by 0.2%. The Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) expects stagnation for East Germany in 2025 and growth of 1.1% in 2026. According to the IWH forecast, the unemployment rate is expected to be 7.8% in both 2025 and 2026, after 7.5% in 2024.
Oliver Holtemöller
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FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions Answers to the most frequently asked questions about doctoral studies at IWH. What are the IWH's main areas of research? Researchers at IWH are leading…
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Halle Institute for Economic Research
Job Market candidates from the IWH-DPE 2025/2026 Marius Fournés' dissertation explores how climate policy shapes cross-border capital flows and how globalisation influences…
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Academic conference on the 30th anniversary of the single market
Academic conference on the 30th anniversary of the single market 1st session Chair: Josefina Monteagudo (European Commission) The “completeness” of the EU single market in…
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26.09.2024 • 27/2024
Services stabilise the East German economy – Implications of the Joint Economic Forecast Autumn 2024 and of Länder data from recent publications of the Statistical Offices
In 2024, the East German economy is expected to grow by 0.2%, while it will decline by 0.1% in Germany as a whole. The Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) is forecasting an East German growth rate of 0.7% in 2025, and a rate of 1.2% in 2026. According to the IWH forecast, the unemployment rate in eastern Germany is likely to be 7.5% in 2024 as well as 2025 and 7.2% in 2026.
Oliver Holtemöller
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Charts
Info Graphs Sometimes pictures say more than a thousand words. Therefore, we selected a few graphs to present our main topics visually. If you should have any questions or would…
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Voting under Debtor Distress
Jakub Grossmann, Štěpán Jurajda
Abstract
There is growing evidence on the role of economic conditions in the recent successes of populist and extremist parties. However, little is known about the role of over-indebtedness, even though debtor distress has grown in Europe following the financial crisis. We study the unique case of the Czech Republic, where by 2017, nearly one in ten citizens had been served at least one debtor distress warrant even though the country consistently features low unemployment. Our municipality-level difference-in-differences analysis asks about the voting consequences of a rise in debtor distress following a 2001 deregulation of consumer-debt collection. We find that debtor distress has a positive effect on support for (new) extreme right and populist parties, but a negative effect on a (traditional) extreme-left party. The effects of debtor distress we uncover are robust to whether and how we control for economic hardship; the effects of debtor distress and economic hardship are of similar magnitude, but operate in opposing directions across the political spectrum.
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The Impact of Debtor Distress and Unemployment on Support for Extremist and Populist Political Parties in the Czech Republic 2001–2017
Jakub Grossmann, Štěpán Jurajda, Lucie Zapletalová
IDEA CERGE EI Studie,
No. 11,
2023
Abstract
In this study, we analyze the relationships between rising rates of distraint orders and electoral support for populist political parties and extreme left and right wing political parties at the local level. (This publication is written in czech language.)
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