Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Valeria Rueda
Author-Workplace-Name: Sciences Po and Pembroke College, Oxford
Author-Email: valeria.rueda@pmb.ox.ac.uk
Author-Name: Guillaume Laval
Author-Workplace-Name: Institut Pasteur
Author-Name: Etienne Patin
Author-Workplace-Name: Institut Pasteur
Title: Achieving the American Dream: Cultural Distance, Cultural Diversity and Economic Performance
Abstract: This article explores the role of individual cultural distance on income, using the
genetic distance as a proxy for cultural distance. We show that cultural distance
has heterogeneous predictive power.In particular, culturally distant individuals
living in regions with other individuals from more trusting ancestries or less xenophobic
ones are more likely to be economically successful. First generation migrants
seem to be less likely to success the more culturally distant they are, but
this e?ect vanishes as time spent in the USA increases. Our research challenges
the static view that cultural di?erences are necessarily an obstacle to economic
performance in the long-run. Our interpretation of the results is robust to the use
of alternative measures for cultural distance.
Classification-JEL: J61, N30, O15, Z13, Z15
Keywords: Cultural Distance, Cultural Diversity, Genetics, Historical Persistence,
Labor Participation, Social Capital.
Length: 46 pages
Creation-Date: 2016-02-22
Number: _140
File-URL: http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/papers/14412/140februaryruedaetal.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_140