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How Durable are Social Norms? Immigrant Trust and Generosity in 132 Countries

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  • John F. Helliwell
  • Shun Wang
  • Jinwen Xu
Abstract
This paper estimates the global prevalence of social trust and generosity among immigrants. We combine individual and national level data from immigrants and native-born respondents in more than 130 countries, using seven waves of the Gallup World Poll (2005–2012). We find that migrants tend to make social trust assessments that mainly reflect conditions in the country where they now live, but they also reveal a significant influence from their countries of origin. The latter effect is one-third as important as the effect of local conditions. We also find that the altruistic behavior of migrants, as measured by the frequency of their donations in their new countries, is strongly determined by social norms in their new countries, while also retaining some effect of the levels of generosity found in their birth countries. To show that the durability of social norms is not simply due to a failure to recognize new circumstances, we demonstrate that there are no footprint effects for immigrants’ confidence in political institutions. Taken together, these findings support the notion that social norms are deeply rooted in long-standing cultures, yet are nonetheless subject to adaptation when there are major changes in the surrounding circumstances and environment.

Suggested Citation

  • John F. Helliwell & Shun Wang & Jinwen Xu, 2014. "How Durable are Social Norms? Immigrant Trust and Generosity in 132 Countries," NBER Working Papers 19855, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19855
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Kirk Hamilton & John F. Helliwell & Michael Woolcock, 2016. "Social Capital, Trust and Well-being in the Evaluation of Wealth," NBER Working Papers 22556, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Timothy Besley & Anders Jensen & Torsten Persson, 2023. "Norms, Enforcement, and Tax Evasion," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(4), pages 998-1007, July.
    3. Diego Marino Fages, 2023. "Migration and trust: Evidence on assimilation from internal migrants," Discussion Papers 2023-08, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    4. John F. Helliwell & Lara B. Aknin & Hugh Shiplett & Haifang Huang & Shun Wang, 2017. "Social Capital and Prosocial Behaviour as Sources of Well-Being," NBER Working Papers 23761, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Dimant Eugen & Redlin Margarete & Krieger Tim, 2015. "A Crook is a Crook . . . But is He Still a Crook Abroad? On the Effect of Immigration on Destination-Country Corruption," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 464-489, December.
    6. Kern, Matthias Robert & Heinz, Andreas & Stevens, Gonneke W.J.M. & Walsh, Sophie D. & Willems, Helmut, 2020. "“What's a normal weight?” – Origin and receiving country influences on weight-status assessment among 1.5 and 2nd generation immigrant adolescents in Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    7. John F. Helliwell & Hugh Shiplett & Aneta Bonikowska, 2020. "Migration as a test of the happiness set‐point hypothesis: Evidence from immigration to Canada and the United Kingdom," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(4), pages 1618-1641, November.
    8. Marino Fages, Diego & Morales Cerda, Matías, 2022. "Migration and social preferences," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    9. Naci H. Mocan & Christian Raschke, 2014. "Economic Well-being and Anti-Semitic, Xenophobic, and Racist Attitudes in Germany," NBER Working Papers 20059, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Blesse, Sebastian, 2021. "Are your tax problems an opportunity not to pay taxes? Evidence from a randomized survey experiment," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-040, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin & Nilsson, Therese, 2022. "Immigrants’ Tolerance and Integration into Society," Working Paper Series 1447, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    12. Adela Răzvana Lazăr & Adrian Hatos, 2019. "Religiosity and Generosity of Youth. The Results of a Survey with 8th Grade Students from Bihor County (Romania)," Revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala - Journal for Multidimensional Education, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 11(3), pages 93-118, September.
    13. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin & Nilsson, Therese, 2023. "Immigrants from more tolerant cultures integrate deeper into destination countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 1095-1108.
    14. Naci Mocan & Christian Raschke, 2016. "Economic well-being and anti-Semitic, xenophobic, and racist attitudes in Germany," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 1-63, February.
    15. Seong Hee Kim, 2021. "Changes in Social Trust: Evidence from East German Migrants," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 959-981, June.
    16. Cary Wu, 2021. "How Stable is Generalized Trust? Internal Migration and the Stability of Trust Among Canadians," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 129-147, January.
    17. Berggren, Niclas & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2023. "Does globalization suppress social trust?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 443-458.
    18. Markus Leibrecht & Hans Pitlik, 2018. "Is Trust in Companies Rooted in Social Trust, or Regulatory Quality, or Both?," WIFO Working Papers 564, WIFO.
    19. Lim, Sokchea & Morshed, AKM Mahbub & Khun, Channary, 2018. "Trust and macroeconomic performance: A two-step approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 293-305.
    20. Kalischer Wellander, Benjamin & Sanandaji, Tino, 2018. "Tracing the Historic Roots of Generalized Trust," SSE Working Paper Series in Economic History 2018:1, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 10 May 2018.

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    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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