Ethnic Persistence, Assimilation and Risk Proclivity

27 Pages Posted: 17 Jan 2007 Last revised: 16 Apr 2023

See all articles by Holger Bonin

Holger Bonin

IZA Institute of Labor Economics; ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Amelie F. Constant

Princeton University; UNU-MERIT; CESifo; University of Pennsylvania

Konstantinos Tatsiramos

University of Luxembourg; Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO); UNU-MERIT; Maastricht University, Department of Economics; Free University Berlin; University of Bonn; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Journal of Population Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Abstract

The paper investigates the role of social norms as a determinant of individual attitudes by analyzing risk proclivity reported by immigrants and natives in a unique representative German survey. We employ factor analysis to construct measures of immigrants' ethnic persistence and assimilation. The estimated effect of these measures on risk proclivity suggests that adaptation to the attitudes of the majority population closes the immigrant-native gap in risk proclivity, while stronger commitment to the home country preserves it. As risk attitudes are behaviorally relevant, and vary by ethnic origin, our results could also help explain differences in economic assimilation of immigrants.

Keywords: second generation effects, risk attitudes, ethnic persistence, gender, assimilation

JEL Classification: D1, D81, F22, J15, J16, J31, J62, J82

Suggested Citation

Bonin, Holger and Constant, Amelie F. and Tatsiramos, Konstantinos and Zimmermann, Klaus F., Ethnic Persistence, Assimilation and Risk Proclivity. IZA Discussion Paper No. 2537, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=957248 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.957248

Holger Bonin

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany
+49 228 3894 303 (Phone)
+49 228 3894 510 (Fax)

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1
D-68034 Mannheim, 68034
Germany

Amelie F. Constant

Princeton University ( email )

189 Wallace Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
United States

HOME PAGE: http://opr.princeton.edu/visitors/

UNU-MERIT ( email )

Keizer Karelplein 19
Maastricht, 6211TC
Netherlands

HOME PAGE: http://www.merit.unu.edu/about-us/profile/?staff_id=2419

CESifo ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.cesifo-group.de/ifoHome/research/Network/Members.html

University of Pennsylvania ( email )

Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

Konstantinos Tatsiramos

University of Luxembourg ( email )

L-1511 Luxembourg
Luxembourg

Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) ( email )

11, Porte des Sciences
Campus Belval – Maison des Sciences Humaines
Esch-sur-Alzette, L-4366
Luxembourg

Klaus F. Zimmermann (Contact Author)

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Bonn
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://https://glabor.org/

UNU-MERIT ( email )

Keizer Karelplein 19
Maastricht, 6211TC
Netherlands

Maastricht University, Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, Limburg 6200MD
Netherlands

University of Bonn

Postfach 2220
Bonn, D-53012
Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Journal of Population Economics

Tiergartenstr. 17
D-69121 Heidelberg
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
98
Abstract Views
1,121
Rank
470,652
PlumX Metrics