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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
|
Issue of 2006‒10‒28
twenty-six papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini Universita degli Studi di Roma, La Sapienza |
| By: | Jordahl, Henrik (Research Institute of Industrial Economics); Gustavsson, Magnus (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | We present new evidence on the influence of income inequality on generalized trust. Using individual panel data from Swedish counties together with an instrumental variable strategy, we find that differences in disposable income, and especially differences among people in the bottom half of the income distribution, are associated with lower trust. The relationship between income inequality and trust is particularly strong for people with a strong aversion against income differentials. We also find that the proportion of people born in a foreign country is negatively associated with trust. |
| Keywords: | trust; social capital; inequality |
| JEL: | C23 D31 Z13 |
| Date: | 2006–10–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0106&r=soc |
| By: | Rainer Winkelmann (University of Zurich and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | It has been shown in past research that unemployment has a large negative impact on subjective well-being of individuals. In this paper, I explore whether and to what extent people with more social capital are sheltered from the harmful effects of unemployment. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel 1984-2004, I find that social capital is an important predictor of well-being levels, but there is no evidence that it moderates the effect of unemployment on well-being. The well-being loss, in turn, is shown to predict job search and re-employment. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed, and suggestions for future research are given. |
| Keywords: | happiness, German Socio-Economic Panel, search, regression |
| JEL: | I31 J64 Z13 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2346&r=soc |
| By: | Persson, Torsten; Tabellini, Guido |
| Abstract: | We study the joint dynamics of economic and political change. Predictions of the simple model that we formulate in the paper get considerable support in a panel of data on political regimes and GDP per capita for about 150 countries over 150 years. Democratic capital - measured by a nation's historical experience with democracy and by the incidence of democracy in its neighborhood - reduces the exit rate from democracy and raises the exit rate from autocracy. In democracies, a higher stock of democratic capital stimulates growth in an indirect way by decreasing the probability of a sucessful coup. Our results suggest a virtuous circle, where the accumulation of physical and democratic capital reinforce each other, promoting economic development jointly with the consolidation of democracy. |
| Keywords: | economic growth; hazard rates; political regimes |
| JEL: | D70 H11 N10 O11 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5654&r=soc |
| By: | Dohmen, Thomas J; Falk, Armin; Huffman, David; Sunde, Uwe |
| Abstract: | Experimental evidence has convincingly shown the existence of reciprocal inclinations, i.e., a tendency for people to respond in-kind to hostile or kind actions. Little is known, however, about: (i) the prevalence of reciprocity in the population, (ii) individual determinants of reciprocity, (iii) the correlation between positive and negative inclinations within person, and (iv) consequences of reciprocal inclinations for wages, subjective well-being, friendships and other economic and social outcomes. Answering these questions requires moving out of the lab and using a large and representative subject pool, which combines information about subjects' reciprocal inclinations with extensive socioeconomic background information. In this paper we measure the reciprocal inclinations of 21,000 individuals. We show that most people state reciprocal inclinations, in particular in terms of positive reciprocity. However, there is substantial heterogeneity in the degree of reciprocity, and quite surprisingly, only a weak correlation between positive and negative reciprocity for an individual. In terms of determinants, being female, and increasing age, lead to greater positive and less negatively reciprocal tendencies. Taller people are more positively reciprocal, but height has no impact on negative reciprocity. The asymmetric impact of these determinants provides further indication that positive and negative reciprocity are fundamentally different traits, rather than the outcome of a single underlying tendency. In terms of economic implications, we provide the first evidence using a large representative survey that corroborates an important hypothesis arising from laboratory experiments: Positively reciprocal workers are in fact paid more, and exert greater effort, on the job. Moreover, positively reciprocal people are more likely to be employed, report having more close friends, and have a higher overall level of life satisfaction. In this sense, Homo Reciprocans - in the positive domain - is in fact more successful than his or her non-reciprocal fellows. |
| Keywords: | happiness; reciprocity; SOEP; trust; unemployment; wage regression |
| JEL: | D63 J3 J6 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5789&r=soc |
| By: | Bisin, Alberto; Patacchini, Eleonora; Verdier, Thierry; Zenou, Yves |
| Abstract: | We first develop a model of identity formation resulting from the interaction of cultural transmission and socialization inside the family, peer effects and social interactions, and identity choice. We then put the model to data using the UK Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities. We show that the main determinants of ethnic identity include past racial harassment experiences, language spoken at home and with friends, quality of housing, and structure of the family. Most importantly, we find that, consistently with our theoretical analysis, identity and socialization to an ethnic minority are, other things equal, more intense in mixed neighbourhood than in segregated neighbourhoods. We argue that this last result has important and up-to-now unnoticed implications for integration and assimilation policies. |
| Keywords: | cultural transmission; ethnicity; identity; intermarriage |
| JEL: | A14 J15 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5662&r=soc |
| By: | Hassan Benchekroun; Ngo Van Long |
| Abstract: | We develop a theoretical model in which each individual is, in some ultimate sense, motivated by purely egoistic satisfaction derived from the goods accruing to him, but there is an implicit social contract such that each performs duties for the others in a way that enhances the satisfaction of all. We introduce a state variable that acts as a proxy for social capital of trustworthiness and that we call the stock of cooperation. We show that noncooperative agents might condition their action on this state variable. Agents build-up the society's stock of cooperation and gradually overcome the free riding problem in a game of private contribution to a public good. We assume that there are neither penalties in the sense of trigger strategies, nor guilt and that each individual is rational. <P>Nous développons un modèle théorique dans lequel les individus sont motivés par la satisfaction égoïste que leur procure l’accumulation de biens, mais où le contrat social incite chaque individu à travailler pour les autres afin d’accroître le bien-être collectif. Nous introduisons une variable d’état représentant le stock de capital social, ou « stock de coopération ». Nous démontrons que cette variable peut influencer les actions des agents non-coopératifs. Les agents accumulent le stock de coopération de la société et réussisent à règler de manière progressive le problème du passager clandestin pour un jeu de contributions privées dans un bien public. Nous supposons qu’il n’existe pas de stratégies de pénalité, de sentiment de culpabilité chez les individus et que chaque agent est rationnel. |
| Keywords: | behavior rule, public goods, stock of cooperation, trust, biens public, confiance, règle de conduite, stock de coopération |
| JEL: | C73 H41 D60 |
| Date: | 2006–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2006s-17&r=soc |
| By: | Cattaneo, Alejandra; Lalive, Rafael |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to study whether schooling choices are affected by social interactions. Such social interactions may be important because children enjoy spending time with other children or parents learn from other parents about the ability of their children. Identification is based on a randomized intervention that grants a cash subsidy encouraging school attendance among a sub-group of eligible children within small rural villages in Mexico. Results indicate that (i) the eligible children tend to attend school more frequently, (ii) but also the neligible children acquire more schooling when the subsidy is introduced in their local village, (iii) social interactions are economically important, and (iv) they may arise due to changes in parents’ perception of their children’s ability. |
| Keywords: | field experiment; peer effects; PROGRESA; schooling |
| JEL: | C93 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5816&r=soc |
| By: | Jan K. Brueckner (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine); Ann G. Largey (Dublin City University Business School) |
| Abstract: | Various authors, most notably Putnam (2000), have argued that low-density living reduces social capital and thus social interaction, and this argument has been used to buttress criticisms of urban sprawl. If low densities in fact reduce social interaction, then an externality arises, validating Putnam's critique. The paper tests this premise using data from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey. In the empirical work, social interaction measures for individual survey respondents are regressed on census-tract density and a host of household characteristics, using an instrumental-variable approach to control for the potential endogeneity of density. |
| Keywords: | Conflict; Urban sprawl; Social capital |
| JEL: | R1 J11 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irv:wpaper:060707&r=soc |
| By: | Thomas Dohmen (IZA Bonn); Armin Falk (IZA Bonn, University of Bonn, and CEPR); David Huffman (IZA Bonn); Uwe Sunde (IZA Bonn, University of Bonn, and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether two crucial determinants of economic decision making – willingness to take risks and willingness to trust other people – are transmitted from parents to children. Our evidence is based on survey questions that ask about these attitudes directly, and are good measures in the sense that they reliably predict actual risk-taking and trusting behavior in large-scale, incentive compatible field experiments. We find a strong, significant, and robust correlation between the responses of parents and their children. Exploring heterogeneity in the strength of transmission, we find that gender of the child does not matter, but that children with fewer siblings, and firstborn children, are more strongly influenced by parents in terms of risk attitudes. Interestingly, for trust there is no impact of family size or birth order. There is some evidence of ‘receptive’ types: children who are similar to the father are similar to the mother, and children who are similar to parents in terms of risk are similar in terms of trust. We find that the transmission from parents to children is relatively specific, judging by questions that ask about willingness to take risks in specific contexts – financial matters, health, career, car driving, and leisure activities. Finally, we provide evidence of positive assortative mating based on risk and trust attitudes, which reinforces the impact of parents on children. Our results have potentially important implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying cultural transmission, social mobility, and persistent differences in behavior across countries. More generally, our findings shed light on the basic question of where attitudes towards risk and trust come from. |
| Keywords: | risk preferences, trust, intergenerational transmission, cultural transmission, assortative mating, social mobility, GSOEP |
| JEL: | D1 D8 J12 J13 J62 Z13 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2380&r=soc |
| By: | Goux, Dominique; Maurin, Eric |
| Abstract: | Children's outcomes are strongly correlated with those of their neighbours. The extent to which this is causal is the subject of an extensive literature. An identification problem exists because people with similar characteristics are observed to live in close proximity. Another major difficulty is that neighbourhoods measured in available data are often considerably larger than those which matter for outcomes (i.e. close neighbours). Several institutional features of France enable us to address these problems. We find that an adolescent's performance at the end of junior high-school are strongly influenced by the performance of other adolescents in the neighbourhood. |
| Keywords: | neighbourhood effects on education |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5682&r=soc |
| By: | La Ferrara, Eliana; Mele, Angelo |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effect of racial segregation on public school expenditure in US metropolitan areas and school districts. Our starting point is the literature that relates public good provision to the degree of racial fragmentation in the community. We argue that looking at fragmentation alone may be misleading and that the geographic distribution of different racial groups needs to be taken into account. Greater segregation is associated with more homogeneity in some subareas and more heterogeneity in others, and this matters if decisions on spending are taken at aggregation levels lower than the MSA. For given fragmentation, the extent of segregation conveys information on households’ possibility to sort into relatively more or less homogeneous jurisdictions. We account for the potential endogeneity of racial segregation and find that the latter has a positive impact on average public school expenditure both at the MSA and at the district level. At the same time, increased segregation leads to more inequality in spending across districts of the same MSA, thus worsening the relative position of poorer districts. |
| Keywords: | public school expenditure; racial fragmentation; segregation |
| JEL: | H41 H73 J15 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5750&r=soc |
| By: | Kelchtermans, Stijn; Verboven, Frank |
| Abstract: | We analyze the determinants of participation (whether to study) and schooling (where and what to study) in a public system of higher education, based on a unique dataset of all eligible high school pupils in an essentially closed region (Flanders). We find that pupils perceive the available institutions and programs as close substitutes, implying an ambiguous role for travel costs: they hardly affect the participation decisions, but have a strong impact on the schooling decisions. In addition, high school background plays an important role in both the participation and schooling decisions. To illustrate how our empirical results can inform the debate on reforming public systems, we assess the effects of tuition fee increases. Uniform cost-based tuition fee increases achieve most of the welfare gains; the additional gains from fee differentiation are relatively unimportant. These welfare gains are quite large if one makes conservative assumptions on the social cost of public funds, and there is a substantial redistribution from students to outsiders. |
| Keywords: | higher education; participation; policy reform; schooling |
| JEL: | I2 I23 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5690&r=soc |
| By: | P. DE PELSMACKER; W. JANSSENS |
| Abstract: | In a quota sample of 334 Belgian individuals, reliable and valid scales are developed, that measure subjective, personal, normative and descriptive norms, personal identity, attitude components, perceived behavioral control, habit formation, behavioral intention and behavior with respect to speeding. A speeding behavior model is built in which the relevance of personal, descriptive and normative norms, the cognitive and affective attitude towards speeding, the affective attitude towards speed limits, and habit formation is assessed. Habit formation and the attitude towards speeding influence the intention towards speeding and selfreported speeding. Personal and to a lesser extent subjective and descriptive norms have a significant effect on attitudes towards speeding and on self-reported speeding. Recommendations for more effective and efficient anti-speeding campaigns are formulated. |
| Keywords: | speeding scale development, speeding behavior modeling, norms |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:06/401&r=soc |
| By: | Ammermüller, Andreas; Pischke, Jörn-Steffen |
| Abstract: | We estimate peer effects for fourth graders in six European countries. The identification relies on variation across classes within schools. We argue that classes within primary schools are formed roughly randomly with respect to family background. Similar to previous studies, we find sizeable estimates of peer effects in standard OLS specifications. The size of the estimate is much reduced within schools. This could be explained either by selection into schools or by measurement error in the peer background variable. When we correct for measurement error we find within school estimates close to the original OLS estimates. Our results suggest that the peer effect is modestly large, measurement error is important in our survey data, and selection plays little role in biasing peer effects estimates. We find no significant evidence of non-linear peer effects. |
| Keywords: | measurement error; peer effects |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5660&r=soc |
| By: | Beck, Thorsten; Laeven, Luc |
| Abstract: | Drawing on the recent literature on economic institutions and the origins of economic development, we offer a political economy explanation of why institution building has varied so much across transition economies. We identify dependence on natural resources and the historical experience of these countries during socialism as major determinants of institution building during transition. Using natural resource reliance and the years under socialism to extract the exogenous component of institution building, we also show the importance of institutions in explaining the variation in economic development and growth across transition economies during the first decade of transition. |
| Keywords: | economic development; institutions; transition economies |
| JEL: | O10 P20 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5718&r=soc |
| By: | Djankov, Simeon; Miguel, Edward; Qian, Yingyi; Roland, Gérard; Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina |
| Abstract: | Studies of the determinants of entrepreneurship have emphasized three distinct perspectives: market institutions, social networks and personal characteristics. Using data from a pilot survey with over 2,000 interviews in 7 cities across Russia, we find evidence for a particularly strong effect of social networks: individuals whose relatives and childhood friends are entrepreneurs are more than twice as likely to be entrepreneurs. Mothers’ characteristics play a significant role in determining future entrepreneurs. |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5707&r=soc |
| By: | Djankov, Simeon; Qian, Yingyi; Roland, Gérard; Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina |
| Abstract: | Social scientists studying the determinants of entrepreneurship have emphasized three distinct perspectives: the role of institutions, the role of social networks and the role of personal characteristics. We conduct a survey from five large developing and transition economies to better understand entrepreneurship in view of these three perspectives. Using data from a pilot study with over 2,000 interviews in 7 cities across China, we find that controlling for institutional environment entrepreneurs in China are much more likely to have family members who are entrepreneurs as well as childhood friends who became entrepreneurs, suggesting that social environment plays an important role in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs also differ strongly from non-entrepreneurs in their attitudes toward risks and their work-leisure preferences, echoing Schumpeter. Finally, failed entrepreneurs score the worst on aptitude tests, but have the best self-reported performance in school and perceive the business environment as least favourable. |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5706&r=soc |
| By: | Michelacci, Claudio; Silva, Olmo |
| Abstract: | We document that the fraction of entrepreneurs who work in the region where they were born is significantly higher than the corresponding fraction for dependent workers. This difference is more pronounced in more developed regions and positively related to the degree of local financial development. Firms created by locals are more valuable and bigger (in terms of capital and employment), operate with more capital intensive technologies, and are able to obtain greater financing per unit of capital invested, than firms created by non-locals. This evidence suggests that there are so many local entrepreneurs because locals can better exploit the financial opportunities available in the region where they were born. This can help in explaining how local financial development causes persistent disparities in entrepreneurial activity, technology, and income. |
| Keywords: | economic and financial development; entrepreneurship; social capital |
| JEL: | J23 O12 O16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5828&r=soc |
| By: | Staffiero, Gianandrea (IESE Business School) |
| Abstract: | We present an explanation of the high frequency of team production and high level of peer monitoring found in Japanese firms, in terms of a simple and empirically grounded variation in individual utility functions. We argue that Japanese agents are generally characterized by a higher degree, with respect to their Western counterparts, of aversion to unfavorable inequality, a feature which explains seemingly puzzling experimental evidence. In combination with long term employment and various organizational practices, this creates the conditions for obtaining willingness to exert mutual monitoring and peer pressure which facilitates the convergence towards cooperative equilibria in dilemma type situations. |
| Keywords: | Team Production; Fairness; Cooperation; Punishment; Reciprocity; |
| JEL: | C91 C92 D63 H41 L23 |
| Date: | 2006–09–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0645&r=soc |
| By: | J. LEPOUTRE; A. HEENE |
| Abstract: | The impact of smaller firm size on corporate social responsibility is ambiguous. Some contend that small businesses are socially responsible by nature, while others argue that a smaller firm size imposes barriers on small firms that constrain their ability to take responsible action. This paper critically analyses recent theoretical and empirical contributions on the size – social responsibility relationship among small businesses. More specifically, it reviews the impact of firm size on four antecedents of business behaviour: issue characteristics, personal characteristics, organizational characteristics and context characteristics. It concludes that the small business context does impose barriers on social responsibility taking, but that the impact of the smaller firm size on social responsibility should be nuanced depending on a number of conditions. From a critical analysis of these conditions, opportunities for small businesses and their constituents to overcome the constraining barriers are suggested. |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:06/396&r=soc |
| By: | Andrea GANZAROLI; Gianluca FISCATO; Luciano PILOTTI |
| Abstract: | Our main objective with this paper is to propose a scoreboard useful to assess clusters’ competitiveness in a knowledge-based economy. Our scoreboard is grounded on the concept of ecology of value. This concept highlights that the competitiveness of a network of small and medium enterprises depends on its capacity to leverage on firms’ strategic autonomy and self-determinacy by providing a context of interaction that is socially rich and adapted to sustain the development of intense ongoing relationships. In our scoreboard the concept of competitiveness is structured into two levels. The top level is made of a matrix that synthesizes cluster’s competitive position in terms of quality of the social capital available and of the learning process activated. The second level is made of three matrixes useful to deepen the reasons that contribute to define a cluster’s competitive position. We test our scoreboard in seven clusters of Emilia Romagna. Our scoreboard proves itself a useful benchmarking tool and a potential good support for policymaking |
| Keywords: | competitive advantage, knowledge creation, scoreboard |
| JEL: | L22 L25 L53 O18 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mil:wpdepa:2006-30&r=soc |
| By: | Hunt, Jennifer |
| Abstract: | Using cross-country and Peruvian data, I show that victims of misfortune, particularly crime victims, are much more likely than non-victims to bribe public officials. Misfortune increases victims' demand for public services, raising bribery indirectly, and also increases victims' propensity to bribe certain officials conditional on using them, possibly because victims are desperate, vulnerable, or demanding services particularly prone to corruption. The effect is strongest for bribery of the police, where the increase in bribery comes principally through increased use of the police. For the judiciary the effect is also strong, and for some misfortunes is composed equally of an increase in use and an increase in bribery conditional on use. The expense and disutility of bribing thus compound the misery brought by misfortune. |
| Keywords: | bribery; corruption; governance |
| JEL: | H1 K4 O1 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5855&r=soc |
| By: | Clerides, Sofronis; Stengos, Thanasis |
| Abstract: | The annual Eurovision Song Contest provides a setting where Europeans can express their sentiments about other countries without regard to political sensitivities. Analyzing voting data from the 25 contests between 1981-2005, we find strong evidence for the existence of clusters of countries that systematically exchange votes regardless of the quality of their entries. Cultural, geographic, economic and political factors are important determinants of point exchanges. Factors such as order of appearance, language and gender are also important. There is also a substantial host country effect. We find some evidence of reciprocity but no evidence of strategic voting. |
| Keywords: | Eurovision; reciprocity; social networks |
| JEL: | Z13 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5732&r=soc |
| By: | Ellingsen, Tore; Johannesson, Magnus |
| Abstract: | Many people are sensitive to social esteem, and their pride is a source of pro--social behavior. We present a game-theoretic model in which sensitivity to esteem varies across players and may depend on context as well players' beliefs about their opponents. For example, the pride associated with a generous image is greater when the player holding the image is in fact generous and believes the observers to be generous as well. The model can account both for the fact that players' behaviour sometimes depends on the opponents' unchosen options and for the prevalence of small symbolic gifts. Perhaps most importantly, the model offers an explanation for motivational crowding out: Control systems and pecuniary incentives may erode morale by signalling to the agent that the principal is not worth impressing. |
| Keywords: | esteem; framing; incentives; motivational crowding out; social preferences |
| JEL: | D1 D23 D82 Z13 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5768&r=soc |
| By: | Pablo Brañas-Garza (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada); Shoshana Neuman (Departament of Economics, Bar-Ilan University) |
| Abstract: | Preferences, including preferences for children, are shaped during the formative years of childhood. It is therefore essential to include exposure to religious practice during childhood in an attempt to establish a link between religiosity and fertility. This path has not been explored in the documented literature that looks at the relationship between current religiosity (measured by one dichotomous church attendance variable) and fertility. The International Social Survey Programme: Religion 2 (ISSP) provides the data base. It includes information on maternal/paternal/own mass participation when the respondent was a child (nine levels each), as well as on his current churchgoing (six levels) and prayer habits (eleven levels).These variables are included as explanatory variables in 'fertility equations' that explain the number of children of Catholic women in Spain. The core findings are that exposure to religiosity during the formative years of childhood, has a pronounced effect on women's 'taste for children' that later on translates into the number of her offspring. The two parents have major effects on women. However, interestingly, while an intensively practicing father encourages the daughter to have more children (by about 0.8, on average), an intensively practicing mother has a negative effect on the daughter’s birth rate, leading to lower fertility by one child. Current religiosity seems to be irrelevant. It follows that religiosity and fertility are interrelated but the mechanism is probably different from the simplistic causality that is suggested in the literature. |
| Keywords: | fertility, religion, Catholic, Church attendance, prayer, parental religiosity, taste for children, Spain. |
| JEL: | Z12 J12 J13 D13 |
| Date: | 2006–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:paoner:06/06&r=soc |
| By: | Amelie Constant (IZA Bonn, DIW Berlin and Georgetown University); Liliya Gataullina (IZA Bonn); Klaus F. Zimmermann (IZA Bonn, University of Bonn, DIW Berlin and Free University of Berlin); Laura Zimmermann (University of Oxford and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | The paper explores the evolution of ethnic identities of two important and distinct immigrant religious groups. Using data from Germany, a large European country with many immigrants, we study the adaptation processes of Muslims and Christians. Individual data on language, culture, societal interactions, history of migration and ethnic self-identification are used to compose linear measures of the process of cultural adaptation. Two-dimensional variants measure integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. Christians adapt more easily to the German society than Muslims. Immigrants with schooling in the home country and with older age at entry as well as female Muslims remain stronger attached to the country of origin. Female Muslims integrate and assimilate less and separate more than Muslim men, while there is no difference between male and female Christians. Christians who were young at entry are best integrated or assimilated, exhibiting lower separation and marginalization in the later years, while for Muslims a similar pattern is observed only for assimilation and separation. Christian immigrants with college or higher education in the home country integrate well, but Muslims do not. For both religious groups, school education in the home country leads to slower assimilation and causes more separation than no education at home. While school education has no impact on integration efforts for Muslim, it affects similar attempts of Christians negatively. |
| Keywords: | ethnicity, ethnic identity, religion, migrant assimilation, migrant integration, ethnic exclusion |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J16 Z10 Z12 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2350&r=soc |