Falling local incomes from the banking crisis raised Nazi vote share substantially

Evidence

Economic factors. Column (1) in Table 4, panel A indicates that in municipalities with a Danat presence incomes fell by 6.5% more than in those that did not have one. When we control for province fixed effects, the effect remains significant at the 5% level and increases in magnitude to 7.8% (column 2). This is a dramatic difference: the Danat-induced drop in incomes represents 54% of the mean income decline of 14.4% over the period 1928 to 1934, or 0.44 sd. Income declines went hand-in-hand with greater electoral support for the Nazi Party. Columns (3)–(6) suggest that, for every standard deviation drop in income, Nazi voting surged by an extra 0.7 p.p. from 1930-July 1932 (column 3), by 0.9 p.p. for 1930-November 1932 (column 4), and by 1 p.p. for 1930-March 1933 (column 5). … The majority of papers on the rise of the Nazi Party rely on unemployment data and has found little evidence of immiserization as a major driving force. Based on new data, we provide the first evidence that falling incomes increased support for the Nazi movement. — Sebastian Doerr et al., Financial Crises and Political…, 107

Categorization

• SHARE: Prior work relying on unemployment data found little immiserization effect; new income-based estimates contradict it.
• XREF: connects to: Nazi gains in exposed cities appeared only after the banking crisis, not before.; The crisis could boost Nazis through economic misery or through Jewish scapegoating propaganda. — Sebastian Doerr et al., Financial Crises and Political…, 106; The bank crisis radicalized voters beyond what income losses alone can explain — Sebastian Doerr et al., Financial Crises and Political…, 109 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Danatbank exposure raised Nazi vote share across multiple federal elections. #corroborates (0.90) — Sebastian Doerr et al., Financial Crises and Political…, 254
• The Danat collapse boosted Nazi votes beyond nationwide crisis effects #expands (0.85) — Sebastian Doerr et al., Financial Crises and Political…, 150
• Danat exposure radicalized Nazi voting beyond the income losses it caused #complicates (0.80) — Sebastian Doerr et al., Financial Crises and Political…, 113