Cultural determinants of unemployment duration (joint with Beatrix Br¸gger and Rafael Lalive)ISER External Seminars

We study how cultural background affects search decisions of jobless workers. While the economic literature has become
increasingly aware of the importance of cultural backgrounds for economic outcomes, the issue of whether and how culture
affects the job search process has previously not been addressed. Yet identifying the effects of culture is difficult.
The existing literature typically uses religious denomination and/or mother tongue as proxies for cultural background.
Alternatively, culture can be measured by indicators of individual values and beliefs, such as trust and respect for others,
and confidence in individual self-determination. One important strand of this literature has studied the impact of culture on
preferences for redistribution and/or institutional development using cross-country data. However, this approach is problematic
for several reasons. First, the validity of culture as an instrument is questionable. Countries that differ with respect to cultural
background also differ with respect to other dimensions. Second, the particular channel by which culture affects economic outcomes
is not clear.
This paper adopts a different approach by exploiting strong cultural differences within a geographically narrowly defined area.
In our context, the effects of a change in cultural background is neither associated with changes in institutions (unemployment insurance)
nor associated with changes in labor demand. Using data from Switzerland we compare job search behavior of individuals at the language
border between French-speaking parts and German-speaking parts of the country. One important dimension along which there striking and
persistent differences between French-speaking and German-speaking parts of the country are attitudes towards welfare state institutions: French-speaking areas are generally more in favor of redistribution and social programmes than German-speaking parts of the country.

Presented by:

Josef Zweimueller (Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich)

Date & time:

February 18, 2008 4:00 pm - February 18, 2008 12:00 am


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