This volume was prepared by Jens Ruhose while he was working at the Ifo Institute. It was completed in December 2014 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich. It includes four self-contained chapters that contribute to the understanding of the...

Narratives - stories - prevail in social life, however little is known about their relation to economic behavior and outcomes. We shed light on this issue by studying the association between folktales' motifs and economic behavior across the world. First, we explore possible relations between...

I analyse about 160 estimates of the relationship between female migrants' labour force participation and ancestry culture, integrating studies from economics and sociology that were previously unconnected. The literature exhibits large heterogeneity in results that is only partly explained by...

Die aktuelle Zuwanderung von Flüchtlingen stellt den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt vor neue Herausforderungen. Ein erhöhtes Ausmaß sozialer Vielfalt, an kultureller Diversität, kommt auf die Betriebe zu. Nicht zuletzt werden deren organisatorische und soziale Kompetenzen gefragt sein, wenn es darum...

The existence of gender gaps in test scores has been documented in the relevant literature for a wide range of countries. In particular, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted by the OECD over the past ten years reveals that on average female students underperform...

Happiness drops when individuals become unemployed. The negative impact of the unemployment shock, however, may differ by cultural background. To test the hypothesis of a 'Teutonic work ethic', this paper takes advantage of Switzerland in its cultural diversity. By comparing different cultural...

Following the report of the Stiglitz Commission, measuring and comparing well-being across countries has gained renewed interest. Yet, analyses that go beyond income and incorporate non-market dimensions of welfare most often rely on the assumption of identical preferences to avoid the...

A lack of cultural integration is often blamed for hindering immigrant families' economic progression. This paper is a first attempt to explore whether immigrant parents' ethnic identity affects the next generation's human capital accumulation in the host country. Empirical results based on data...

This research argues that variations in the interplay between cultural assimilation and cultural diffusion have played a significant role in giving rise to differential patterns of economic development across the globe. Societies that were geographically less vulnerable to cultural diffusion...