Trust of Second Generation Immigrants: Intergenerational Transmission or Cultural Assimilation?

42 Pages Posted: 14 Feb 2013

See all articles by Julie Moschion

Julie Moschion

the University of Queensland; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Domenico Tabasso

IZA (Institute for the Study of Labour); University of Essex - Department of Economics; Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti

Date Written: February 2013

Abstract

This paper studies the respective influence of intergenerational transmission and the environment in shaping individual trust. Focusing on second generation immigrants in Australia and the United States, we exploit the variation in the home and in the host country to separate the effect of the cultural background from that of the social and economic conditions on individual trust. Our results indicate that trust in the home country contributes to the trust of second generation immigrants in both host countries, but particularly so in the United States. Social and economic conditions in the host country, such as crime rate, economic inequality, race inequality and segregation by country of origin, also affect trust. Evidence for first generation immigrants confirms that the transmission of trust across generations is primarily important in the United States, and, that differences in trust levels between the two host countries increase with acculturation.

Keywords: trust, migration, culture

JEL Classification: J15, O15, Z10

Suggested Citation

Moschion, Julie and Tabasso, Domenico and Tabasso, Domenico, Trust of Second Generation Immigrants: Intergenerational Transmission or Cultural Assimilation? (February 2013). Melbourne Institute Working Paper No. 02/13, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2217945 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2217945

Julie Moschion (Contact Author)

the University of Queensland ( email )

St Lucia
Brisbane, Queensland 4072
Australia

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Domenico Tabasso

University of Essex - Department of Economics ( email )

Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom

IZA (Institute for the Study of Labour) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti ( email )

Via Roentgen 1,
Room 5.C1-11
Milan, Milano 20136
Italy

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