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This paper studies the long-term impact of societal socialization on values using the example of doping behavior in sports. We apply the German Reunification Approach to the microcosm of Berlin and exploit its 40-year long division into a capitalist and a communist sector. We deliberately chose attitudes toward doping to test the impact of ideology on values since (i) post-1989 disappointed economic hopes did not confound doping attitudes, and because of (ii) the systematic GDR state doping activities that became public in reunified Germany in the 1990s. Our findings demonstrate that even after half the time the division lasted, e.g. 20 years after the reunification, differences in convictions continue to persist. Personal extramural sports experience and age are equally strong predictors of individual attitudes and beliefs, especially in interaction with ideological socialization.

AbstractA growing economic literature studies the optimal design of social insurance systems and the empirical identification of welfare‐relevant externalities. In this paper, we test whether mandating employee access to paid sick leave has reduced influenza‐like‐illness (ILI) transmission rates as well as pneumonia and influenza (P&I) mortality rates in the United States. Using uniquely compiled data from administrative sources at the state‐week level from 2010 to 2018 along with difference‐in‐differences methods, we present quasi‐experimental evidence that sick pay mandates have causally reduced doctor‐certified ILI rates at the population level. On average, ILI rates fell by about 11 percent or 290 ILI cases per 100,000 patients per week in the first year.