Incompatible European Partners? Cultural Predispositions and Household Financial Behavior

Michael Haliassos, Thomas Jansson () and Yigitcan Karabulut ()
Additional contact information
Thomas Jansson: Research Department, Central Bank of Sweden, Postal: Sveriges Riksbank, SE-103 37 Stockholm, Sweden
Yigitcan Karabulut: Goethe University Frankfurt, Postal: Department of Money and Macroeconomics, House of Finance, Grueneburgplatz 1, PF H32, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

No 285, Working Paper Series from Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden)

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; Cultural Influences on Economic Behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 G11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2014-06-01, Revised 2015-01-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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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:hhs:rbnkwp:0285

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