Still different after all these years: Solidarity behavior in East and West Germany

Using data from laboratory experiments, we find that East Germans show consistently less solidarity than West Germans; there has been no convergence in the 20 years after the reunification. While it has recently been estimated that political values converge 20 to 40 years after the reunification (Alesina and Fuchs-Schündeln, 2007), we conclude from our findings that social behavior changes more slowly than political values. We hypothesize that this is due to complementarities involved in individual social behavior and the necessity to coordinate on social norms on the society level. ► Using data from laboratory experiments, we find that East Germans show consistently less solidarity than West Germans. ► There has been no convergence in the 20 years after the reunification. ► We conclude from our findings that social behavior changes more slowly than political values.