Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T13:35:40.085Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cultural roots of family ties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

Lewis S. Davis  and
Claudia R. Williamson
Lewis S. Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Union College, Schenectady, NY, USA
Claudia R. Williamson*
Affiliation:
Department of Finance and Economics, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We forward the hypothesis and empirically establish that variations in the strength of family ties are rooted in culture. In particular, we show that individualism is associated with looser family ties. We exploit the associations between contemporary individualism and historical climatic and disease environments to establish a causal relationship. At both the individual- and country-levels, we find strong support that individualism reduces family ties. The estimated effects are economically large and robust to a wide variety of potentially confounding variables.

Keywords

Collectivismculturefamily tiesindividualisminstitutions

JEL classification

O5: Economywide Country Studies Z1: Cultural Economics • Economic Sociology • Economic Anthropology J2: Demand and Supply of Labor D1: Household Behavior and Family Economics J16: Economics of Gender • Non-labor Discrimination
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 16 , Issue 6 , December 2020 , pp. 785 - 808
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2020

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

Alesina, A. and Giuliano, P. (2011), ‘Family Ties and Political Participation’, Journal of the European Economic Association, 9(5): 817–839.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ager, P. and Ciccone, A. (2018), ‘Agricultural Risk and the Spread of Religious Communities’, Journal of the European Economic Association, 16(4): 1021–1068.Google Scholar
Alesina, A. and Giuliano, P. (2010), ‘The Power of the Family’, Journal of Economic growth, 15(2): 93–125.Google Scholar
Alesina, A. and Giuliano, P. (2014), ‘Family Ties’, in P, Aghion, and SN, Durlauf (eds), Handbook of Economic Growth, 2 vols, North Holland, The Netherlands: Elsevier, pp.177–215.Google Scholar
Alesina, A., Giuliano, P. and Nunn, N. (2013), ‘On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128(2): 469–530.Google Scholar
Anderberg, D. (2007), ‘Marriage, Divorce and Reciprocity-based Cooperation’, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 109(1): 25–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beugelsdijk, S., Maseland, R. and Van Hoorn, A. (2015), ‘Are Scores on Hofstede's Dimensions of National Culture Stable Over Time? A Cohort Analysis’, Global Strategy Journal, 5(3): 223–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buggle, J. and Durante, R. (2017), 'Climate Risk, Cooperation, and the Co-Evolution of Culture and Institutions,' C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers, DP12380.Google Scholar
Cashdan, E. and Steele, M. (2013), ‘Pathogen Prevalence, Group Bias, and Collectivism in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample’, Human Nature, 24(1): 59–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cline, B. N. and Williamson, C. R. (2017), ‘Individualism, Democracy, and Contract Enforcement’, Journal of Corporate Finance, 46(C): 284–306CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, L. (2016), ‘Individual Responsibility and Economic Development: Evidence from Rainfall Data’, Kyklos, 69(3): 426–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, L. (2019), On the Origin of Religious Values. Social Science Research Network, Abstract=2991191.Google Scholar
Davis, L. S. and Abdurazokzoda, F. (2016), ‘Language, Culture and Institutions: Evidence from A New Linguistic Dataset’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 44(3): 541–561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, L. and Reynolds, M. (2018), ‘Gendered Language and the Educational Gender Gap’, Economics letters, 168(1): 46–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, L. S. and Williamson, C. R. (2016), ‘Culture and the Regulation of Entry’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 44(4): 1055–1083.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, L. and Williamson, C. R. (2018), ‘Open Borders for Business? Causes and Consequences of the Regulation of Foreign Entry’, Southern Economic Journal, 85(2): 508–536.Google Scholar
Davis, L. S. and Williamson, C. R. (2019), ‘Does Individualism Promote Gender Equality?’, World Development, 123, November: 104627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, L. and Wu, S. (2019), 'The Taste for Status in International Comparison,' Journal of Happiness Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00179-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duranton, G., Rodríguez-Pose, A. and Sandall, R. (2009), ‘Family Types and the Persistence of Regional Disparities in Europe’, Economic Geography, 85(1): 23–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enke, B. (2019), ‘Kinship, Cooperation, and the Evolution of Moral Systems’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(2): 953–1019.Google Scholar
Fincher, C. L., Thornhill, R., Murray, D. R. and Schaller, M. (2008), ‘Pathogen Prevalence Predicts Human Cross-Cultural Variability in Individualism/Collectivism’, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275(1640): 1279–1285.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galor, O., Özak, Ö. and Sarid, A. (2018), Geographical Origins of Language Structures. Available at SSRN 3097220.Google Scholar
Gay, V., Santacreu-Vasut, E. and Shoham, A. (2013), ‘The Grammatical Origins of Gender Roles’, Berkeley Economic History Laboratory Working Paper, 3.Google Scholar
Gorodnichenko, Y. and Roland, G. (2011), ‘Which Dimensions of Culture Matter for Long-Run Growth?’, American Economic Review, 101(3): 492–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorodnichenko, Y. and Roland, G. (2012), ‘Understanding the Individualism-Collectivism Cleavage and its Effects: Lessons From Cultural Psychology’, Institutions and Comparative Economic Development, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 213–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorodnichenko, Y. and Roland, G. (2017), ‘Culture, Institutions, and the Wealth of Nations’, Review of Economics and Statistics, 99(3): 402–416.Google Scholar
Greif, A. (2006), ‘Family Structure, Institutions and Growth: The Origins and Implications of Western Corporations’, American Economic Review, 96(2): 308–312.Google Scholar
Greif, A. and Tabellini, G. (2017), ‘The Clan and the Corporation: Sustaining Cooperation in China and Europe’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 45(1): 1–35.Google Scholar
Guiso, L., Sapienza, P. and Zingales, L. (2003), ‘People's Opium? Religion and Economic Attitudes’, Journal of Monetary Economics, 50(1): 225–282.Google Scholar
Gwartney, J., Lawson, R., Hall, J. and Murphy, R (2018), The Fraser Institute: Economic Freedom of the World. 2002 Annual Report.Google Scholar
Heine, S. J. (2010), ‘Cultural Psychology’, in S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, and G. Lindzey, eds., Handbook of SocialPsychology, 1(2): 254.Google ScholarPubMed
Hofstede, G. (2001), Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R., Haerpfer, C., Moreno, A., Welzel, C., Kizilova, K., Diez-Medrano, J., Lagos, M., Norris, P., Ponarin, E. and Puranen, B. (eds.) (2018), World Values Survey: All Rounds – Country-Pooled Datafile Version. http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSDocumentationWVL.jsp. Madrid: JD Systems Institute.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F. and Shleifer, A. (2008), ‘The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins’, Journal of Economic Literature, 46(2): 285–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, M. P. (Ed.) (2009), Ethnologue: Languages of the World, (Sixteenth edn), Dallas, Texas: SIL International.Google Scholar
Licht, A. N., Goldschmidt, C. and Schwartz, S. H. (2007), ‘Culture Rules: The Foundations of the Rule of Law and Other Norms of Governance’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 35(4): 659–688.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mavisakalyan, A. (2015), ‘Gender in Language and Gender in Employment’, Oxford Development Studies, 43(4): 403–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, DR and Schaller, M (2010), ‘Historical Prevalence of Infectious Diseases Within 230 Geopolitical Regions: A Tool for Investigating Origins of Culture’, Journal of Cross-Cultural, 41(1): 99–108Google Scholar
Murray, D. R., Schaller, M. and Suedfeld, P. (2013), ‘Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism’, PLoS One, 8(5), e62275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, D. R., Trudeau, R. and Schaller, M. (2011), ‘On the Origins of Cultural Differences in Conformity: Four Tests of the Pathogen Prevalence Hypothesis’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(3): 318–329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nikolaev, B. and Salahodjaev, R. (2017), ‘Historical Prevalence of Infectious Diseases, Cultural Values, and the Origins of Economic Institutions’, Kyklos, 70(1): 97–128.Google Scholar
Pitlik, H. and Rode, M. (2017), ‘Individualistic Values, Institutional Trust, and Interventionist Attitudes’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 13(3): 575–598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putterman, L. and Weil, D. N. (2010), ‘Post-1500 Population Flows and the Long-run Determinants of Economic Growth and Inequality’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125(4): 1627–1682.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roland, G. (2004), ‘Understanding Institutional Change: Fast-Moving and Slow-Moving Institutions’, Studies in Comparative International Development, 38(4): 109–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roland, G. (2017), The Deep Historical Roots of Modern Culture: A Comparative Perspective. In Based on the Keynote Lecture Presented at the Second World Congress in Comparative Economics in June.Google Scholar
Schwartz, S. H. (1994), ‘Beyond Individualism/Collectivism: New Cultural Dimensions of Values’, in U, Kim, HC, Triandis, Ç, Kâğitçibaşi, S.-C, Choi, and G, Yoon (eds), Cross-cultural research and methodology series, 18 vols, Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method, and applications. Sage Publications, Inc., pp.85–119.Google Scholar
Seguino, S. (2011), ‘Help or Hindrance? Religion's Impact on Gender Inequality in Attitudes and Outcomes’, World Development, 39(8): 1308–1321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The World Bank. 2018. World Development Indicators. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicatorsGoogle Scholar
Thornhill, R. and Fincher, C. L. (2014), ‘The Parasite-Stress Theory of Sociality, the Behavioral Immune System, and Human Social and Cognitive Uniqueness’, Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 8(4): 257.Google Scholar
Thornhill, R., Fincher, C. L. and Aran, D. (2009), ‘Parasites, Democratization, and the Liberalization of Values Across Contemporary Countries’, Biological Reviews, 84(1): 113–131.Google ScholarPubMed
Todd, E. (1990), L'invention de l'Europe, Paris: Editions du Seuil.Google Scholar
Triandis, H. C. (1995), Individualism and Collectivism, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, F., Park, J. H., Koenig, B. L. and Graham, J. (2012), ‘Regional Variation in Pathogen Prevalence Predicts Endorsement of Group-Focused Moral Concerns’, Evolution and Human Behavior, 33(5): 429–437.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1968), [1915]. The Religion of China, New York, NY: Free Press; New edition.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. E. (2000), ‘The new Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead’, Journal of Economic Literature, 38(3): 595–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar