Working Paper: NBER ID: w15415
Authors: Alberto F. Alesina; Paola Giuliano
Abstract: We establish an inverse relationship between family ties and political participation, such that the more individuals rely on the family as a provider of services, insurance, transfer of resources, the lower is one's civic engagment and political participation. We also show that strong family ties appear to be a substitute for generalized trust, rather than a complement to it. These three constructs-civic engagement, political participation, and trust- are part of what is known as social capital; therefore, in this paper, we contribute to the investigation of the origin and evolution of social capital. We establish these results using within-country evidence and looking at the behavior of immigrants from various countries in 32 different destination places.
Keywords: Family Ties; Political Participation; Social Capital
JEL Codes: P16; Z10; Z13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| family ties (J12) | political participation (D72) |
| family ties (J12) | generalized trust (Z13) |
| generalized trust (Z13) | political participation (D72) |
| family ties (J12) | trust in broader society (Z13) |