IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_5964.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

'Cultural Persistence' of Health Capital: Evidence from European Migrants

Author

Listed:
  • Joan Costa-i-Font
  • Azusa Sato

Abstract

We examine the persistence of the association between subjective health assessments of both first and second-generation migrants with that of their country of origin. To mitigate potential selection bias, we use European data containing records from 30 countries, including over 90 countries of birth and control for timing of migration, selective migration and other variables including citizenship and cultural proxies. Our results show robust evidence of persistence of health assessments, and such associations do not fade over generations. We estimate that a one standard deviation change in ancestral health assessment increases a first-generation migrant’s health assessments by an average of 16%, and that of a second-generation migrant between 11% and 25%. Estimates differ by gender (larger for males) and lineage (larger for paternal lineage). Hence, we can posit that self-reported health largely reflects country-of-origin specific social norms.

Suggested Citation

  • Joan Costa-i-Font & Azusa Sato, 2016. "'Cultural Persistence' of Health Capital: Evidence from European Migrants," CESifo Working Paper Series 5964, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5964
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp5964.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raquel Fernández & Alessandra Fogli, 2006. "Fertility: The Role of Culture and Family Experience," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(2-3), pages 552-561, 04-05.
    2. Erin R. Hamilton & Jodi Berger Cardoso & Robert A. Hummer & Yolanda C. Padilla, 2011. "Assimilation and emerging health disparities among new generations of U.S. children," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(25), pages 783-818.
    3. Francesco Giavazzi & Ivan Petkov & Fabio Schiantarelli, 2019. "Culture: persistence and evolution," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 117-154, June.
    4. Robert Kaestner & Jay A. Pearson & Danya Keene & Arline T. Geronimus, 2009. "Stress, Allostatic Load, and Health of Mexican Immigrants," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1089-1111, December.
    5. Gary S. Becker & Nigel Tomes, 1994. "Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition, pages 257-298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Erzo F. P. Luttmer & Monica Singhal, 2011. "Culture, Context, and the Taste for Redistribution," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 157-179, February.
    7. Ljunge, Martin, 2014. "Trust issues: Evidence on the intergenerational trust transmission among children of immigrants," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 175-196.
    8. Heather Antecol & Kelly Bedard, 2006. "Unhealthy assimilation: Why do immigrants converge to American health status levels?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 43(2), pages 337-360, May.
    9. John Bound, 1991. "Self-Reported Versus Objective Measures of Health in Retirement Models," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(1), pages 106-138.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Costa-Font, Joan & Ljunge, Martin, 2018. "The ‘healthy worker effect’: Do healthy people climb the occupational ladder?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 119-131.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joan Costa-Font & Azusa Sato, 2016. ""Cultural Persistence" of Health Capital: Evidence from European Migrants," Working Papers 2016-04, FEDEA.
    2. Mocan, Naci, 2019. "Taxes and culture of leisure: Impact on labor supply in Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 618-639.
    3. Naci H. Mocan & Luiza Pogorelova, 2015. "Why Work More? The Impact of Taxes, and Culture of Leisure on Labor Supply in Europe," NBER Working Papers 21297, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Naci Mocan & Luiza Pogorelova, 2015. "Why Work More? The Impact of Taxes, and Culture of Leisure on Labor Supply in Europe," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1514, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    5. Mocan, Naci & Pogorelova, Luiza, 2015. "Why Work More? The Impact of Taxes, and Culture of Leisure on Labor Supply in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 9281, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Di Miceli, Andrea, 2019. "Horizontal vs. vertical transmission of fertility preferences," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 562-578.
    7. Touma, Fatima & Hummer, Robert A., 2022. "Race/ethnicity, immigrant generation, and physiological dysregulation among U.S. adults entering midlife," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    8. Xu, Xu & Jin, Xin, 2018. "The autocratic roots of social distrust," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 362-380.
    9. Yiannis Kountouris & Kyriaki Remoundou, 2016. "Cultural Influence on Preferences and Attitudes for Environmental Quality," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(2), pages 369-397, May.
    10. Klaus Desmet & Romain Wacziarg, 2021. "The Cultural Divide," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(637), pages 2058-2088.
    11. Jérôme Gonnot & Federica lo Polito, 2023. "Cultural Transmission and Political Attitudes: Explaining Differences between Natives and Immigrants in Western Europe," Working Papers 2023-12, CEPII research center.
    12. Boris Gershman, 2016. "Long-Run Development and the New Cultural Economics," Working Papers 2016-06, American University, Department of Economics.
    13. Gonnot, Jérôme, 2020. "The Evolution of First-Generation Immigrants' Political Preferences in Western Europe," TSE Working Papers 20-1145, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    14. Núria Rodríguez‐Planas, 2018. "Mortgage finance and culture," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 786-821, September.
    15. Diego Marino Fages, 2023. "Migration and trust: Evidence on assimilation from internal migrants," Discussion Papers 2023-08, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    16. Anna Tegunimataka, 2023. "The Health of Immigrant Youth in Denmark: Examining Immigrant Generations and Origin," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 659-694, June.
    17. Adam Levai & Riccardo Turati, 2021. "The Impact of Immigration on Workers’ Protection," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2021021, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 07 Sep 2021.
    18. Moriconi, Simone & Peri, Giovanni, 2019. "Country-specific preferences and employment rates in Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 1-27.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09iak4384sp is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Maseland, Robbert, 2021. "Contingent determinants," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    21. Ilpo Kauppinen & Panu Poutvaara, 2019. "Preferences for Redistribution and International Migration," ifo Working Paper Series 283, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    health assessments; cultural persistence; first generation migrant; second generation migrant;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5964. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.