Working Paper: NBER ID: w23997
Authors: Samuel Bazzi; Martin Fiszbein; Mesay Gebresilasse
Abstract: The presence of a westward-moving frontier of settlement shaped early U.S. history. In 1893, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner famously argued that the American frontier fostered individualism. We investigate the Frontier Thesis and identify its long-run implications for culture and politics. We track the frontier throughout the 1790–1890 period and construct a novel, county-level measure of total frontier experience (TFE). Historically, frontier locations had distinctive demographics and greater individualism. Long after the closing of the frontier, counties with greater TFE exhibit more pervasive individualism and opposition to redistribution. This pattern cuts across known divides in the U.S., including urban–rural and north–south. We provide evidence on the roots of frontier culture, identifying both selective migration and a causal effect of frontier exposure on individualism. Overall, our findings shed new light on the frontier’s persistent legacy of rugged individualism.
Keywords: Culture; Individualism; Preferences for Redistribution; American Frontier; Persistence
JEL Codes: O15; O43; D72; H2; N31; N91; P16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Total Frontier Experience (TFE) (F16) | individualistic naming practices (P31) |
| Total Frontier Experience (TFE) (F16) | opposition to income redistribution (D30) |
| Total Frontier Experience (TFE) (F16) | support for Republican Party (D72) |
| individualistic naming practices (P31) | individualistic behaviors in adults (D91) |
| frontier exposure (F55) | individualism (P14) |
| childhood exposure to frontier conditions (N51) | adult behaviors (C92) |