To Each Their Own
Individualism and School Performance: Evidence from PISA Test Scores
Philipp Ehrl & Fabiana Assis Alves
Journal of Human Capital, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper analyzes whether the cultural trait of individualism affects school performance using PISA data. Our preferred empirical specification is an instrumental variable estimation with school fixed effects and individual control variables. We find that a one standard deviation higher individualism index is associated with an increase between 19 and 36 score points in science, math and reading tests, roughly equivalent to the content of 1.1 to 2.1 school years. The use of Hofstede's index or a derived individualism index from the PISA data leads to the same conclusions.
Surveillance and Self-Control
Deborah Cobb-Clark et al.
Economic Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper studies important determinants of adult self-control using population-representative data and exploiting Germany’s division as quasi-experimental variation. We find that former East Germans have substantially more self-control than West Germans and provide evidence for government surveillance as a possible underlying mechanism. We thereby demonstrate that institutional factors can shape people’s self-control. Moreover, we find that self-control increases linearly with age. In contrast to previous findings for children, there is no gender gap in adult self-control and family background does not predict self-control.
Disadvantaged group members are prouder of their group when using the language of the dominant group compared to their native language
Siwar Hasan-Aslih et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2 January 2024
Abstract:
In ethnically and linguistically diverse societies, disadvantaged groups often face pressures to acquire and speak the advantaged group’s language to achieve social inclusion and economic mobility. This work investigates how using the advantaged group’s language affects disadvantaged group members’ in-group pride and collective self-esteem, relative to using their native language. Across six experimental studies involving Palestinian citizens of Israel (total N = 1,348), we test two competing hypotheses: Disadvantaged group members may experience greater in-group pride when using a) their native language, due to its emotional significance (the nativity hypothesis), or b) the language of the advantaged group, due to activation of habituated compensatory responses to dominance relations (the identity enhancement hypothesis). We found that respondents reported significantly higher in-group pride when responding to a Hebrew survey when compared to performing the same activity in Arabic (Studies 1a and 1b), regardless of whether the researchers administering the survey were identified as Jewish or Arab (Studies 2a and 2b). Study 3 replicated this effect while employing the “bogus pipeline” technique, suggesting the pride expression was authentic, not merely driven by social desirability. Finally, Study 4 (pre-registered) examined additional measures of positive regard for the in-group, finding that participants described their group more positively in an attribute selection task, and reported greater collective self-esteem, when surveyed in Hebrew, rather than in Arabic. Taken together, these findings suggest that language use influences disadvantaged group members’ perceptions and feelings concerning their group when those languages are associated with relative position in an intergroup hierarchy.
Reproductive Strategies and Romantic Love in Early Modern Europe
Mauricio de Jesus Dias Martins & Nicolas Baumard
Archives of Sexual Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
In Western Europe, the Early Modern Period is characterized by the rise of tenderness in romantic relationships and the emergence of companionate marriage. Despite a long research tradition, the origins of these social changes remain elusive. In this paper, we build on recent advances in behavioral sciences, showing that romantic emotional investment, which is more culturally variable than sexual attraction, enhances the cohesion of long-term relationships and increases investment in children. Importantly, this long-term strategy is considered especially advantageous when living standards are high. Here, we investigate the relationship between living standards, the emotional components of love expressed in fiction work, and behavioral outcomes related to pair bonding, such as nuptial and fertility rates. We developed natural language processing measures of “emotional investment” (tenderness) and “attraction” (passion) and computed romantic love in English plays (N = 847) as a ratio between the two. We found that living standards generally predicted and temporally preceded variations of romantic love in the Early Modern Period. Furthermore, romantic love preceded an increase in nuptial rates and a decrease in births per marriage. This suggests that increasing living standards in the Early Modern Period may have contributed to the emergence of modern romantic culture.
French
Guillaume Blanc & Masahiro Kubo
Brown University Working Paper, November 2023
Abstract:
This paper studies nation-building in a fragmented society. We document the adoption of a common language and the construction of a national identity and ideology in France. Using a natural experiment and drawing on a novel dataset on the languages spoken across municipalities on the eve of the twentieth century, we establish that state intervention in the provision of education brought homogenization. To understand why nation-building was successful, we study heterogeneity and find that elites and the demand for education were instrumental in driving homogenization. Additionally, we explore persistent impacts on identity and ideology in the twentieth century, documenting increased participation in the French Resistance and reduced collaboration with the Nazis, alongside an increase in votes supporting political centralization.
Gender norms and the gender gap in higher education
Stefanie Huber & Hannah Paule-Paludkiewicz
Labour Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Cross-country differences in the gender gap of higher education attainment are large. In this paper, we study the role of gender norms for this particular gender gap. To isolate the effect of gender norms from institutional and economic factors, we investigate the decisions of second-generation immigrants in the United States to achieve at least a bachelor’s degree. We measure gender norms using economic outcomes as well as beliefs prevailing in the migrants’ parents’ country of origin. We find that gender norms explain part of the observed differences in the gender gap in attaining at least a bachelor’s degree. There is also a sizable effect of gender norms on gender gaps in higher educational attainment levels, such as a master’s degree or a PhD. We confirm the gender norms effect using a sample of siblings, which allows us to hold unobservable and observable household characteristics constant.
Historical pathogen prevalence and the radius of trust
Pantelis Kammas & Vassilis Sarantides
European Economic Review, February 2024
Abstract:
Why do people exhibit different levels of trust between strangers and those who are socially close to them? This study tests the hypothesis that societies with a historical prevalence of infectious diseases develop strategies to minimise contact with potentially unhealthy or contaminated out-groups, while emphasising strong local networks of in-groups to manage infections effectively, ultimately leading to a lower radius of trust. Our empirical analysis verifies that societies with higher historical pathogen prevalence trust less out-groups relatively to in-groups using (i) cross-country; (ii) cross-country individual-level; (iii) ethnic group-level; and (iv) individual-level data for a sample of second-generation migrants. In particular, our findings support a negative association between historical pathogen prevalence and the contemporary radius of trust, specifically when we differentiate attitudes between socially distant groups (e.g., people met for the first time) and family members. Furthermore, this pattern remains consistent when we proxy trust attitudes using historical data on disapproval of violence at the ethnic group level from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. We find that an increase in historical pathogen prevalence is associated with a lower disapproval of violence toward out-group members from other societies relative to in-group members from the local community. Overall, historical pathogen prevalence sheds light on a fundamental cultural trait that persists over time.
Telenovelas and attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community in Latin America
Selim Gulesci, María Lombardi & Alejandra Ramos
Labour Economics, April 2024
Abstract:
How does exposure to soap operas with LGBTQ+ characters affect attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community? To answer this question, we construct a novel database of 175 Telenovelas (soap operas) with LGBTQ+ characters airing in 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2002 and 2019. Exploiting variation in the introduction of new soap operas with LGBTQ+ characters within country and survey-waves, we find that individuals exposed to more soap operas with LGBTQ+ characters are less tolerant toward the LGBTQ+ community. This short-term backlash is driven by shows with comedic storylines. The effect is stronger among traditionally more conservative individuals (e.g. older or frequently attending religious services).
Why Similar Policies Resulted In Different COVID-19 Outcomes: How Responsiveness And Culture Influenced Mortality Rates
Tse Yang Lim et al.
Health Affairs, December 2023, Pages 1637-1646
Abstract:
In the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, per capita mortality varied by more than a hundredfold across countries, despite most implementing similar nonpharmaceutical interventions. Factors such as policy stringency, gross domestic product, and age distribution explain only a small fraction of mortality variation. To address this puzzle, we built on a previously validated pandemic model in which perceived risk altered societal responses affecting SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Using data from more than 100 countries, we found that a key factor explaining heterogeneous death rates was not the policy responses themselves but rather variation in responsiveness. Responsiveness measures how sensitive communities are to evolving mortality risks and how readily they adopt nonpharmaceutical interventions in response, to curb transmission. We further found that responsiveness correlated with two cultural constructs across countries: uncertainty avoidance and power distance. Our findings show that more responsive adoption of similar policies saves many lives, with important implications for the design and implementation of responses to future outbreaks.
Are markets in happier countries less affected by tragic events? Evidence from market reaction to the Israel-Hamas conflict
Dharen Kumar Pandey et al.
Finance Research Letters, February 2024
Abstract:
Do happier people care more, or less, about other people's problems? Indirectly to this question we investigate whether markets in happier countries are less affected by tragic events. Using a sample of 71 global stock market indices, we employ an event study method to analyze the immediate impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict on stock market returns. We find that stock indices from happier nations are more resilient to this geopolitical event. While the overall cumulative effect of the war remained largely negative, the Europe, Middle East, and Africa markets demonstrated heightened vulnerability to the conflict.