Incompatible European partners? Cultural predispositions and household financial behavior

Michael Haliassos, Thomas Jansson and Yigitcan Karabulut

No 58, SAFE Working Paper Series from Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE

Abstract: The Eurozone fiscal crisis has created pressure for institutional harmonization, but skeptics argue that cultural predispositions can prevent convergence in behavior. Our paper derives a robust cultural classification of European countries and utilizes unique data on natives and immigrants. Classification based on genetic distance or on Hofstede's cultural dimensions fails to identify a single 'southern' culture but points to a 'northern' culture. Our findings support the relevance of cultural predispositions for financial behavior; and convergence of behavior over time in the face of common institutions, even for countries with great cultural distance from the country that created those institutions.

Keywords: Household Portfolios; Household Finance; Culture and Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 G11 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015, Revised 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Incompatible European Partners? Cultural Predispositions and Household Financial Behavior (2017)
Working Paper: Incompatible European Partners? Cultural Predispositions and Household Financial Behavior (2015)
Working Paper: Incompatible European Partners? Cultural Predispositions and Household Financial Behavior (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:safewp:58

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2462056

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