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Individual Rationality and Learning: Welfare Expectations in East Germany Post-Reunification

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Author Info

  • Frijters, Paul

    () (University of Queensland)

  • Haisken-DeNew, John P.

    () (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research)

  • Shields, Michael A.

    () (Monash University)

Abstract

In this paper we test the Rational Expectations hypothesis using longitudinal data on expectations and realizations of individual welfare for East Germans in the years following reunification. German reunification was unexpected and delivered a large shock to the future prospects of the inhabitants of the former East Germany. We therefore take it as a 'natural' experiment through which to study the rationality of expectations. Our results show that East Germans significantly over-estimated the welfare gains immediately following reunification. The prediction error was largest for the young, the poorly educated and those with children. However, expectations and realizations of life satisfaction in East Germany had converged by 1995, at a level considerably below that of West Germans. We hence conclude that expectations were close to rational after the dust of reunification had settled, but that expectations are not likely to be rational in times of great transition or volatility.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 498.

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Length: 23 pages
Date of creation: May 2002
Date of revision:
Publication status: published in: Canadian Journal of Economics, 2009, 42 (4), 1326 - 1346
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp498

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Keywords: rational expectations; life satisfaction; welfare; learning; German reunification;

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Cited by:
  1. Silvia Maja Melzer & Ruud J. Muffels, 2012. "Migrant's Pursuit of Happiness: The Impact of Adaption, Social Comparison and Relative Deprivation; Evidence from a 'Natural' Experiment," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 448, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

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