Covid-19 Crisis Fuels Hostility against Foreigners Vojtěch Bartoš (LMU Munich) Michal Bauer (CERGE-EI Prague) Jana Cahlíková (MPI for Tax Law and Public Finance Munich) Julie Chytilová (CERGE-EI Prague) Discussion Paper No. 243 May 14, 2020 Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 | www.rationality-and-competition.de Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Klaus M. Schmidt, University of Munich, 80539 Munich, Germany +49 (89) 2180 3405 |
[email protected] Covid-19 Crisis Fuels Hostility against Foreigners Vojtěch Bartoš1, Michal Bauer2,3, Jana Cahlíková4, Julie Chytilová2,3 First version: April 25, 2020 This version: May 12, 2020 1 Department of Economics, University of Munich, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, D-80539, Germany 2 CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Politickych veznu 7, 111 21, Czech Republic 3 Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Opletalova 26, 110 00, Prague, Czech Republic 4 Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, Marstallplatz 1, D - 80539 München, Germany Abstract Intergroup conflicts represent one of the most pressing problems facing human society. Sudden spikes in aggressive behavior, including pogroms, often take place during periods of economic hardship or health pandemics, but little is known about the underlying mechanism behind such change in behavior. Many scholars attribute it to scapegoating, a psychological need to redirect anger and to blame an out-group for hardship and problems beyond one’s own control. However, causal evidence of whether hardship triggers out-group hostility has been lacking.