How Much Did We Inherit? Social Norms as a Legacy of Socialism

Abstract

This paper tests whether the state indoctrination present in the education system of the socialistic East Germany has a long-lasting effect on the current shirking behavior among the German Members of the European Parliament. Combining the data from the roll-call voting sessions together with signatures on daily attendance sheets needed for a per diem compensations enables me to construct the shirking measure. Results confirm that studying social sciences, which were heavily affected by the political regime, significantly increases the probability of shirking among MEPs born in the East Germany. However, further empirical investigation is needed to reduce the uncertainty about the magnitude of the estimate.

Keywords: East Germany, corruption, shirking, European Parliament, socialism, voting