Cultural vs. economic legacies of empires: Evidence from the partition of Poland

We examine which differences among historic partitions of Poland are persistent. * Differences in incomes, education, corruption, and trust in government disappeared. * Differences in religiosity and democratic capital persist. * Persistent legacies of empires have an effect on political outcomes. Poland was divided among three empires--Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Prussia--for over a century until 1918. The partition brought about divergence in culture, institutions, and economic development. We use spatial regression discontinuity to examine, which empire effects are persistent. We find that... Mehr ...