Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T19:33:51.540Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON THE FERTILITY BEHAVIOR OF FIRST- AND SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2016

Holger Stichnoth  and
Mustafa Yeter
Holger Stichnoth*
Affiliation:
ZEW Mannheim Email: [email protected]
Mustafa Yeter
Affiliation:
ZEW Mannheim Email: [email protected]
*
Address correspondence to: Holger Stichnoth, ZEW Centre for European Economic Research, P.O. Box 103443, 68034 Mannheim, Germany. E-Mail: [email protected]. Phone: +49 (0)621 1235-362.
Get access

Abstract:

This paper argues that the conventional strategy of identifying a cultural effect using variation across countries of origin may be biased because the assumption that all immigrants make their choices in an identical environment in the host country is unlikely to hold true, even when controlling for individual characteristics. We discuss different mechanisms behind the bias and propose to eliminate it by exploiting only the variation within countries of origin. In our application (fertility of immigrants in Germany), the cultural effect survives this more demanding specification; however, the estimated coefficient is smaller compared to estimations that rely on cross-country variation for identification. We also show that the cultural influence is considerably smaller in the second generation of immigrants.

Keywords

ImmigrationfertilityassimilationGermanyJ13J15J16
Type
Research Papers
Information
Journal of Demographic Economics , Volume 82 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 281 - 314
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adsera, Alicia and Ferrer, Ana Maria (2014) Factors influencing the fertility choices of child immigrants in Canada. Population Studies: A Journal of Demography 68 (1), 65–79.Google Scholar
Algan, Yann and Cahuc, Pierre (2010) Inherited trust and growth. American Economic Review 100 (5), 2060–2092.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basten, Christoph and Betz, Frank (2013) Beyond work ethic: Religion, individual and political preferences. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 5 (3), 67–91.Google Scholar
Baudin, Thomas, de la Croix, David and Gobbi, Paula E. (2015) Fertility and childlesness in the United States. American Economic Review 105 (6), 1852–1882.Google Scholar
Bisin, Alberto and Verdier, Thierry (2011) The economics of cultural transmission and socialization. In Benhabib, J., Jackson, M. O. and Bisin, A. (eds.), Handbook of Social Economics, vol. 1A, pp. 339–416. San Diego, Amsterdam: North.Google Scholar
Blau, Francine D. and Kahn, Lawrence M. (2015) Substitution between individual and cultural capital: Pre-migration labor supply, culture and US labor market outcomes among immigrant women. Journal of Human Capital 9 (4), 439–482.Google Scholar
Blau, Francine D., Kahn, Lawrence M., Liu, Albert Yung-Hsu, and Papps, Kerry L. (2013) The transmission of women’s fertility, human capital, and work orientation across immigrant generations. Journal of Population Economics 26 (2), 405–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blau, Francine D., Kahn, Lawrence M. and Papps, Kerry L. (2011) Gender, source country characteristics and labor market assimilation among immigrants: 1980–2000. Review of Economics and Statistics 93 (1), 43–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chabé-Ferret, Bastien (2013a) The Importance of Fertility Norms: New Evidence from France. Discussion paper 2013-12, IRES, Louvain-la-Neuve.Google Scholar
Chabé-Ferret, Bastien (2013b) Socioeconomic Characteristics, Fertility Norms and the Black-White Fertility Gap in the US. Discussion paper 2013-11, IRES, Louvain-la-Neuve.Google Scholar
Cygan-Rehm, Kamila (2014) Immigrant fertility in Germany: The role of culture. Schmollers Jahrbuch - Journal of Applied Social Science Studies 134 (3), 305–340.Google Scholar
Di Miceli, Andrea (2016) Horizontal vs. vertical transmission of fertility preferences. Unpublished working paper, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eugster, Beatrix, Lalive, Rafael, Steinhauer, Andreas, and Zweimüller, Josef (2011) The demand for social insurance: Does culture matter? Economic Journal 121 (556), F413–F448.Google Scholar
Fernández, Raquel (2007) Women, work, and culture (Alfred Marshall Lecture) Journal of the European Economic Association 5 (2–3), 305–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernández, Raquel (2008) Culture and Economics. In Durlauf, S. N. and Blume, L. E. (eds.), The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd ed. Basingstoke, Hampshire, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Fernández, Raquel (2011) Does Culture Matter? In Benhabib, J., Jackson, M. O. and Bisin, A. (eds.), Handbook of Social Economics, vol. 1A, pp. 481–510. San Diego, Amsterdam, North-Holland, Elsevier.Google Scholar
Fernández, Raquel and Fogli, Alessandra (2006) Fertility: The role of culture and family experience. Journal of the European Economic Association 4 (2–3), 552–561.Google Scholar
Fernández, Raquel and Fogli, Alessandra (2009) Culture: An empirical investigation of beliefs, work, and fertility. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 1 (1), 146–177.Google Scholar
Furtado, Delia, Marcén, Miriam and Sevilla-Sanz, Almudena (2013) Does culture affect divorce decisions? Evidence from European immigrants in the US. Demography 50 (3), 1013–1038.Google Scholar
Gevrek, Eylem, Gevrek, Z., Deniz and Gupta, Sonam (2013) Culture, intermarriage, and immigrant women’s labor supply. International Migration 51 (6), 146–167.Google Scholar
Guiso, Luigi, Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales (2006) Does culture affect economic outcomes? Journal of Economic Perspectives 20 (2), 23–48.Google Scholar
Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies (1999) Turkey Demographic and Health Survey 1998. Ankara.Google Scholar
Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies (2009) Turkey Demographic and Health Survey 2008. Ankara.Google Scholar
Henrich, Joseph, Boyd, Robert, Bowles, Samuel, Camerer, Colin, Fehr, Ernst, Gintis, Herbert, and McElreath, Richard (2001) In search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 91 (2), 73–78.Google Scholar
Kok, Suzanne, Bosch, Nicole, Deelen, Anja, and Euwals, Rob (2011) Migrant Women on the Labour Market: On the Role of Home- and Host-Country Participation. Discussion paper 180, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, The Hague.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luttmer, Erzo, Singhal, F. P. and Monica (2011) Culture, context, and the taste for redistribution. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 3 (1), 157–179.Google Scholar
Milewski, Nadja (2007) First child of immigrant workers and their descendants in West Germany: Interrelation of events, disruption, or adaptation? Demographic Research 17, 859–896.Google Scholar
Myrskylä, Mikko, Goldstein, Joshua R. and Cheng, Yen-Hsin Alice (2013) New cohort fertility forecasts for the developed world: Rises, falls, and reversals. Population and Development Review 39 (1), 31–56.Google Scholar
Pötzsch, Olga (2010) Cohort fertility: A comparison of the results of the official birth statistics and of the Microcensus survey 2008. Comparative Population Studies - Zeitschrift für Bevölkerungswissenschaft 35 (1), 185–204.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt (2015a) Bevölkerung mit Migrationshintergrund - Ergebnisse des Mikrozensus 2014, Fachserie 1, Reihe 2.2. Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt (2015b) Bildungsstand der Bevölkerung, Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Steinhauer, Andreas (2012) Gender Identity and Culture: The Effect of Mother’s Guilt on Fertility and Female Labor Supply in Switzerland. Unpublished working paper, University of Zurich.Google Scholar
United Nations Population Division (2011) World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, CD Rom edition. http://esa.un.org/wpp/unpp/panel_population.htm. Accessed on 7 December 2012.Google Scholar
World Bank (2012) World Development Indicators. http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators. Accessed on 7 December 2012.Google Scholar