Social Networks and Parental Behavior in the Intergenerational Transmission of Religion
37 Pages Posted: 25 Jun 2011
There are 2 versions of this paper
Social Networks and Parental Behavior in the Intergenerational Transmission of Religion
Date Written: June 2011
Abstract
We analyze the intergenerational transmission of the strength of religion focusing on the interplay between family and peer effects. We develop a theoretical model suggesting that both peer quality and parental effort are of importance for the religious behavior of the children. We then bring the model to the data by using a very detailed dataset of adolescent friendship networks in the United States. We find that, for religious parents, the higher is the fraction of religious peers, the more parents put effort in transmitting their religiosity, indicating cultural complementarity. For non-religious parents, we obtain the reverse, indicating cultural substituability. Concerning the success in transmitting the religious trait, we find that, for religious parents, the fraction of religious peers has only an indirect effect (through parental effort) while, for non-religious parents, there is a lower indirect effect and a statistically significant and sizeable direct effect of peers on the transmission of the non-religious trait.
Keywords: cultural transmission, network fixed effects., peer effects, Religion
JEL Classification: A14, D85, Z12
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Who's Who in Networks: Wanted - the Key Player
By Coralio Ballester, Antoni Calvo-armengol, ...
-
By Antoni Calvo-armengol and Yves Zenou
-
Identification of Peer Effects through Social Networks
By Yann Bramoulle, Habiba Djebbari, ...
-
Peer Effects and Social Networks in Education and Crime
By Antoni Calvo-armengol, Eleonora Patacchini, ...
-
Peer Effects and Social Networks in Education
By Antoni Calvo-armengol, Eleonora Patacchini, ...
-
Peer Effects and Social Networks in Education
By Antoni Calvo-armengol, Eleonora Patacchini, ...