IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_7949.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Origins of Common Identity: Evidence from Alsace-Lorraine

Author

Listed:
  • Sirus Dehdari
  • Kai Gehring

Abstract

The quasi-exogenous division of the French regions Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War allows us to provide evidence about group identity formation within historically homogeneous regions. We use several measures of stated and revealed preferences at the municipal-level in a geographical regression discontinuity design. More nation-state repression is associated with a strengthening of regional identity in the short, medium, and long run. We explain this in a model and document that the establishment of regionalist organizations is a key mechanism to strengthen identity. A relatively stronger regional compared to national identity is associated with preferences for more regional decision-making.

Suggested Citation

  • Sirus Dehdari & Kai Gehring, 2019. "The Origins of Common Identity: Evidence from Alsace-Lorraine," CESifo Working Paper Series 7949, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7949
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp7949_0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Alesina & Enrico Spolaore, 1997. "On the Number and Size of Nations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1027-1056.
    2. Stephanos Vlachos, 2019. "On war and political radicalization," Vienna Economics Papers 1904, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicolas Berman & Mathieu Couttenier & Victoire Girard, 2023. "Mineral Resources and the Salience of Ethnic Identities," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(653), pages 1705-1737.
    2. Cáceres-Delpiano, Julio & De Moragas, Antoni-Italo & Facchini, Gabriel & González, Ignacio, 2021. "Intergroup contact and nation building: Evidence from military service in Spain," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    3. Vlachos, Stephanos, 2022. "On war and political radicalization: Evidence from forced conscription into the Wehrmacht," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    4. Fontana, Nicola & Nannicini, Tommaso & Tabellini, Guido, 2023. "Historical roots of political extremism: The effects of Nazi occupation of Italy," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 723-743.
    5. Klein, Miriam & Wiens, Marcus & Schultmann, Frank, 2022. "Borderland resilience, willingness to help and trust–An empirical study of the French-German border area," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    6. Andrea Bonoldi & Chiara Dalle Nogare & Martin Mosler & Niklas Potrafke, 2020. "Do inheritance rules affect voter turnout? Evidence from an Alpine region," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 395-445, December.
    7. Gehring, Kai & Kaplan, Lennart C. & Wong, Melvin H.L., 2022. "China and the World Bank—How contrasting development approaches affect the stability of African states," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    8. Kukic, Leonard & Arslantas, Yasin, 2022. "Religious change and persistence in Bosnia: Poverty, conversions, and nationalism, 1468-2013," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 35286, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    9. Felipe Carozzi & Edward Pinchbeck & Luca Repetto, 2023. "Scars of War: The Legacy of WW1 Deaths on Civic Capital and Combat Motivation," CESifo Working Paper Series 10298, CESifo.
    10. Tao, Yunqing & Wang, Dianjie & Ye, Yongwei & Wu, Haitao & Zhang, Yao, 2023. "The role of public environmental concern on corporate social responsibility: Evidence from search index of web users," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    11. Kai Gehring & Joop Adema & Panu Poutvaara & Joop Age Harm Adema, 2022. "Immigrant Narratives," CESifo Working Paper Series 10026, CESifo.
    12. Kukić, Leonard, 2023. "The last Yugoslavs: Ethnic diversity and national identity," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    13. Kai Gehring, 2019. "Overcoming History through International Organizations - Historical Roots of EU Support and Euroscepticism," CESifo Working Paper Series 7831, CESifo.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sirus Dehdari & Kai Gehring, 2017. "The Origins of Common Identity: Division, Homogenization Policies and Identity Formation in Alsace-Lorraine," CESifo Working Paper Series 6556, CESifo.
    2. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 2002. "Political economics and public finance," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 24, pages 1549-1659, Elsevier.
    3. Brousseau, Eric & Raynaud, Emmanuel, 2011. "“Climbing the hierarchical ladders of rules”: A life-cycle theory of institutional evolution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 65-79.
    4. Amin, S. & Murshed, S.M., 2022. "Diversity matters in the world of finance: does ethnic and religious diversity hinder financial development in developing countries," ISS Working Papers - General Series 692, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    5. Sidney Turner & Richard Turner, 2011. "Capital cities: a special case in urban development," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(1), pages 19-35, February.
    6. Drèze, Jacques & Le Breton, Michel & Savvateev, Alexei & Weber, Shlomo, 2008. ""Almost" subsidy-free spatial pricing in a multi-dimensional setting," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 275-291, November.
    7. Marc Flandreau, 2006. "The logic of compromise : monetary bargaining in Austria-Hungary 1867-1913," Working Papers hal-01065619, HAL.
    8. Lacroix, Jean & Mitchener, Kris James & Oosterlinck, Kim, 2023. "Domino Secessions: Evidence from the U.S," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 676, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    9. Alberto Alesina & Eliana La Ferrara, 2003. "Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2028, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    10. Nir Dagan & Oscar Volij, 2000. "Formation of Nations in a Welfare‐State Minded World," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 2(2), pages 157-181, April.
    11. Markus Brückner, 2010. "Population Size and Civil Conflict Risk: Is there a Causal Link?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(544), pages 535-550, May.
    12. Jason H. Bowman & Xiaoping Chen & Ben G. Li, 2021. "A tale of two gravities," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 52-75, March.
    13. Jean-Marc Bourgeon & Marie-Laure Breuillé, 2023. "Citizen preferences and the architecture of government," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 61(3), pages 537-585, October.
    14. Massimo Morelli & Dominic Rohner, 2010. "Natural Resource Distribution and Multiple Forms of Civil War," OxCarre Working Papers 050, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    15. Ortuno-Ortin, Ignacio & Sempere, Jaume, 2006. "A theoretical model of nations, regions and fiscal integration," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 132-157, January.
    16. Aleberto Alesina & Guido Tabellini & Francesco Trebbi, 2017. "Is Europe an Optimal Political Area?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 48(1 (Spring), pages 169-234.
    17. Clément Carbonnier, 2008. "Fiscal competition between decentralized jurisdictions, theoretical and empirical evidence," THEMA Working Papers 2008-17, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    18. Willemien Kets & Alvaro Sandroni, 2021. "A Theory of Strategic Uncertainty and Cultural Diversity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(1), pages 287-333.
    19. Robert Dur & Hein Roelfsema, 2005. "Why does centralisation fail to internalise policy externalities?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 395-416, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    group identity; nation-building; repression; assimilation; regional identity; border regions; Alsace-Lorraine;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General
    • N40 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • Z19 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Other

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7949. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.