Culture, Context, and the Taste for Redistribution

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Luttmer, Erzo F. P.; Singhal, Monica
• 署名单位: Dartmouth College; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.3.1.157
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 157-179
• 关键词: social-mobility; UNITED-STATES; preferences; work; fertility; demand; gap

摘要

Is culture an important determinant of preferences for redistribution? To separate culture from the economic and institutional environment (context), we relate immigrants' redistributive preferences to the average preference in their birth countries. We find a strong positive relationship that is robust to rich controls for economic factors and cannot easily be explained by selective migration. This effect is as large as that of own household income and appears stronger for those less assimilated into the destination country. Immigrants from high-preference countries are more likely to vote for more pro-redistribution parties. The effect of culture persists strongly into the second generation. (JEL H23, Z13)