Collective Memories on the 2010 European Debt Crisis

Laura Arnemann,Niklas Potrafke,Kai A Konrad

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3764535

Abstract

We examine whether collective memories on the aidr indicating biases for assessments of how the crisis outcomes are perceived in borrower and lender countries. Nation-serving biases may well explain if the European debt crisis has reduced the sense of belonging rather than bringing European citizens closer together.

Highlights

The 2010 European debt crisis partitioned the countries of the euro zone into two groups: fiscal and financial market conditions dramatically deteriorated in some Euro area countries
Economic psychology suggests that individual borrowers and lenders remember informal credit relationships in different manners: memories are influenced by a self-serving bias
We examine citizens’ views about the 2010 European debt crisis

Summary

Introduction

The 2010 European debt crisis partitioned the countries of the euro zone into two groups: fiscal and financial market conditions dramatically deteriorated in some Euro area countries (for an account of the crisis see, e.g. Frieden and Walter, 2017, 2019; Schimmelfennig, 2015). We examine how citizens from borrower and lender countries remember the European debt crises, the aid and reform programs, their motivation and their consequences To this end, our study conducts two new international surveys. The results do not suggest that experts from borrower countries remember the 2010 European debt crisis in a different manner than experts from lender countries. H2: Collective memories on the aid and reform programs chosen to handle the 2010 European debt crisis differ to a greater extent between non-experts than between experts from borrower and lender countries. To ensure that our participants had an opportunity to actively remember the events during the 2010 European debt crisis we restrict our sample to include only participants aged 25 or older Both samples, for experts and non-experts, are not representative of the populations in the individual EU countries, . We do not have data at hand, that measure media coverage

Results

Greeks benefited from rescue package to Greece

Conclusion