DP13658 Acculturation, Education, and Gender Roles: Evidence from Canada

Author(s):	Anke Kessler, Kevin Milligan
Publication Date:	April 2019
Keyword(s):	Assimilation, Culture, Fertility, Human Capital, Immigration, Labor Supply
JEL(s):	J16, J22, J61
Programme Areas:	Labour Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=13658

This paper studies the influence of cultural norms on economic outcomes. We combine detailed information on second-generation female immigrants with historical data from their an- cestral source countries to see how the cultural endowment affects current decisions on work and fertility. We show that results using the standard approach are sensitive to context and specification. We then extend to reveal an education gradient for cultural assimilation: lower-educated women exhibit a strong influence of cultural variables while higher educated women show no in- fluence at all. We gather and present evidence on several potential mechanisms for the education gradient.