May 3, 2020
AND PEOPLE WONDER WHY IRAQ DIDN'T PROMPTLY TURN INTO SWITZERLAND?:
The Long-lasting Effects of Living under Communism on Attitudes towards Financial Markets (Christine Laudenbach, Ulrike Malmendier, Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi, March 2020, NBER Working Paper No. 26818)
Just because you reach the End of History doesn't make your society healthy. There's plenty of heavy lifting ahead.We analyze the long-term effects of living under communism and its anticapitalist doctrine on households' financial investment decisions and attitudes towards financial markets. Utilizing comprehensive German brokerage data and bank data, we show that, decades after Reunification, East Germans still invest significantly less in the stock market than West Germans. Consistent with communist friends-and-foes propaganda, East Germans are more likely to hold stocks of companies from communist countries (China, Russia, Vietnam) and of state-owned companies, and are unlikely to invest in American companies and the financial industry. Effects are stronger for individuals exposed to positive "emotional tagging," e.g., those living in celebrated showcase cities. Effects reverse for individuals with negative experiences, e.g., environmental pollution, religious oppression, or lack of (Western) TV entertainment. Election years trigger further divergence of East and West Germans. We provide evidence of negative welfare consequences due to less diversified portfolios, higher-fee products, and lower risk-adjusted returns.
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 3, 2020 8:34 AM
