摘要：Are preferences exogenously given? Or do individual tastes and values evolve endogenouslywithin a particular socio-economic environment? In this paper, we make use of a naturalexperiment to analyse the role of inflation experiences and institutions in the formation ofindividual inflation preferences. In particular, we exploit the division of post-war Germany toinvestigate to what extent the factual non-experience of inflation and 40 years of Communismhave affected inflation preferences in East and West Germany. We find that historicalexperiences have a significant and long-lasting effect on people's preferences. Due to theirspecific political and economic background, East Germans are significantly moreinflation averse than West Germans, even 20 years after reunification.
