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The German miracle or the miracle of the cultural attitude Inequality and convergence as products of culture in Germany

Tubadji, Annie; Gnezdilova, Natalya

Authors

Annie Tubadji

Natalya Gnezdilova



Abstract

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose : The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between redistribution, convergence and local cultural capital (as defined by culture-based development concept).Design/methodology/approach : The paper infers the basic mechanism of the cultural dependence of convergence and inequality - through an empirical test for the case of the "German jobmiracle" during the current crisis. Two empirical questions are asked: first, is local income inequality associated with local cultural capital and second, is the negative convergence between East and West Germany during the crisis related to culturally sensitive employers' preference for job preservation vs job loss. An OLS enquiry and two deeper estimation methods (a logitmodel and a 3SLS simultaneous equationsmodel) are alternatively applied in order to triangulate the empirical results.Findings : The findings support the existence of cultural effect on local income inequality and cultural path dependence of employers' preferences for job preservation vs job loss in a condition of economic shock.Originality/value : The paper provides both theoretical reasoning and empirical illustration of the significance of the cultural effect on human preferences which may or may not allow for redistribution and convergence between localities.

Citation

Tubadji, A., & Gnezdilova, N. (2014). The German miracle or the miracle of the cultural attitude Inequality and convergence as products of culture in Germany. International Journal of Social Economics, 41(11), 1014-1037. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-11-2012-0211

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 1, 2014
Publication Date Jan 1, 2014
Journal International Journal of Social Economics
Print ISSN 0306-8293
Publisher Emerald
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 41
Issue 11
Pages 1014-1037
DOI https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-11-2012-0211
Keywords employment, culture, income distribution, local economies, sustainable development
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/807990
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-11-2012-0211


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