Modeling Spatial Heterogeneity and Historical Persistence: Nazi Concentration Camps and Contemporary Intolerance

A wealth of recent research in comparative politics examines how spatial variation historical conditions shapes modern political outcomes. In an article the American Political Science Review , Homola, Pereira, and Tavits argue that Germans who live nearer to former Nazi concentration camps are more likely display out-group intolerance. Clarifying conceptual foundations posttreatment bias reviewing record on postwar state creation Germany, we state-level differences confound relationship between distance Using publicly available European Values Survey data electoral results from 2017, find no consistent evidence is related contemporary values. Our findings have implications for literatures persistence, causal inference with data, Holocaust studies, outgroup tolerance.