Open AccessPolitico-Economic Regimes and Attitudes: Female Workers under State Socialism
Author(s) -
Pamela Campa,
Michel Serafinelli
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the review of economics and statistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1530-9142
pISSN - 0034-6535
DOI - 10.1162/rest_a_00772
Subject(s) - german , socialism , state (computer science) , demographic economics , economics , partition (number theory) , state socialism , west germany , political science , population , development economics , economic history , sociology , geography , politics , demography , communism , mathematics , archaeology , combinatorics , algorithm , computer science , law , capitalism
This paper investigates whether attitudes are affected by politico-economic regimes. We exploit the efforts of state socialist regimes to promote women's economic inclusion. Using the German partition after World War II, we show that women from East-Germany are more likely to place importance on career success compared to women from West-Germany. Further, the population at large in East Germany is less likely to hold traditional gender role attitudes. Examining possible mechanisms, we find that the change in attitudes under the East German regime was larger in areas where the growth in female employment was larger. A comparison of Eastern versus Western Europe confirms these results.