Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/214951 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 7949
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
The quasi-exogenous division of the French regions Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War allows us to provide evidence about group identity formation within historically homogeneous regions. We use several measures of stated and revealed preferences at the municipal-level in a geographical regression discontinuity design. More nation-state repression is associated with a strengthening of regional identity in the short, medium, and long run. We explain this in a model and document that the establishment of regionalist organizations is a key mechanism to strengthen identity. A relatively stronger regional compared to national identity is associated with preferences for more regional decision-making.
Subjects: 
group identity
nation-building
repression
assimilation
regional identity
border regions
Alsace-Lorraine
JEL: 
D91
H70
N40
Z19
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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