Changing Narratives

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Lydia Mechtenberg
• Subject Area: Economic Policy, Applied Economics
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 513092447

Subproject M3 “Changing Narratives” addresses the conflict-abatement hypothesis (CAH) in the context of mass migration (M). It investigates how M into a given society (driver) triggers off incremental BISC via imposing costs (externalities) that can only be justified to the society when altering the national narrative (beliefs) in a way that preserves the legitimacy of the societal structure. With this research question, M3 bridges the recent innovative literature on narratives and the long-existing literature on M. M3 postulates changing narratives as channel through which a host country adapts its institutions to handle the externalities of M. First, M3 hypothesizes that the initial legitimacy of redistribution–a core institution–determines the likelihood of incremental BISC and the mediating role of narratives: the higher the initial redistribution, the sooner the society converges to a common narrative about M that mediates incremental BISC, and the less polarized it becomes in reaction. Second, M3 hypothesizes that after actual M and if integration is successful, the migrants’ voices will contribute to the narrative of the domestic society. This will further induce incremental BISC. M3 develops a game-theoretical framework, implements laboratory experiments to test its theoretical predictions, and then conducts a large online survey experiment to investigate changing narratives with higher external validity.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5622: Big Structural Change