Working Papers
Working Papers
Recession Severity and In-Group Bias (Job Market Paper) đź”—
Abstract: Moral universalism is the application of moral values, such as trust and altruism, equally to everyone, regardless of whether they belong to one’s in-group (e.g., family, friends) or out-group (e.g., foreigners). It has been shown that societies deviate from moral universalism and exhibit in-group bias. In this study, I focus on in-group bias in trust and analyze whether it was impacted by the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. In the study, in-group bias is defined as the difference between trust in the in-group and the out-group. Using a difference-in-differences approach, the findings indicate that the crisis led to an increase in in-group bias. This result is driven by a decrease in out-group trust during the crisis, while in-group trust remained unchanged. Particularly, the crisis caused a decline in trust toward people met for the first time, and people of other religions and nationalities. The effects are driven by individuals with low and middle perceived income levels. In addition, the study shows that the crisis also decreased trust in key institutions, including the government, parliament, police, and political parties.
Abstract: There is a strong correlation between the preferences and beliefs of parents and their children. Also, children of more educated parents tend to have different preferences and beliefs than those of less educated parents. However, evidence on whether education influences adults’ preferences regarding the attributes they wish to instill in children is missing. This paper seeks to fill that gap. Utilizing compulsory education reforms implemented in 19 European countries and data from the Integrated Values Survey—which includes questions about essential qualities children should be encouraged to learn at home—we demonstrate that women who acquired additional education due to these reforms are more likely to prioritize imagination, determination and perseverance, and a sense of responsibility as important traits to instill in children. Conversely, they are less inclined to regard religiosity, obedience, and unselfishness as essential attributes for children to learn at home. In addition, we find that education reduces women's religiosity. These effects are primarily driven by Catholic women and women living in majority-Catholic countries. In contrast, education does not have a significant impact on men's religiosity or the child attributes they consider important.
Natives’ Attitudes Toward Domestic Violence After a Refugee Shock 🔗
Abstract: Since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Turkey has become the host of the world’s largest refugee population. The number of Syrian refugees has grown to around 3.7 million by the end of 2021, representing nearly a 5% increase in the country's population. Leveraging this significant demographic shift, I investigate the impact of refugees on the natives’ attitudes toward domestic violence against women. I utilize data on the annual number of Syrian refugees in Turkish provinces, and two rounds of the Demographic and Health Survey conducted before and six years after the refugee influx began. To address the potential endogeneity of refugees’ location choices, I employ an instrumental variable strategy. The results show that a higher refugee intensity at the province level leads to a decrease in native women’s approval of wife beating. The results are driven by ethnic Turkish women with lower levels of education. Evidence using an alternative sample of provinces near the border and the neighboring regions confirms this finding and further indicates that the refugee influx led to an increase in ethnic Kurdish women’s approval of domestic violence.
The Istanbul Convention and Acceptance of Violence Against Women (with Naci Mocan) (draft being updated)
Abstract: The Istanbul Convention is an international treaty aimed at protecting women against violence. We investigate its effect on individual attitudes toward domestic violence against women in Europe. Using survey data from the Eurobarometer in 2010 and 2016, we estimate difference-in-differences models comparing individuals in countries that signed and subsequently ratified the Convention to those in countries that signed it but either never ratified it or did so after the 2016 surveys were conducted. Our results provide evidence that being a party to the Convention through ratification significantly reduced the likelihood that lower-educated individuals consider domestic violence against women acceptable, relative to their counterparts who live in countries that signed but had not officially entered into the Convention. However, this effect exists only in countries outside the former Eastern Bloc. In contrast, in former Eastern Bloc countries, the Convention influenced attitudes only among younger individuals who had less than 20 years of exposure to communism when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990. We further show that these younger individuals tend to hold more individualistic and less pro-government attitudes compared to their older counterparts—those over 20 years old at the time of the collapse. These findings suggest that the impact of the Convention on shaping preferences depends on the cultural context, which is itself shaped by institutions—in this case: communism.
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