Gender Gap in Education as a Portable Cultural Element: Evidence from First and Second Generation Immigrants

tavassoli, nahid and noghani, farzaneh and noghanibehambari, hamid (2022): Gender Gap in Education as a Portable Cultural Element: Evidence from First and Second Generation Immigrants.

Abstract

This paper illustrates the intergenerational transmission of the gender gap in education among first and second-generation immigrants. Using the Current Population Survey (1994-2018), we find that the difference in female-male education persists from the home country to the new environment. A one standard deviation increase of the ancestral country’s female-male difference in schooling is associated with 17.2% and 2.5% of a standard deviation increase in the gender gap among first and second generations, respectively. Since gender perspective in education uncovers a new channel for cultural transmission among families, we interpret the findings as evidence of cultural persistence among first generations and partial cultural assimilation of second generations. Moreover, Disaggregation into country-groups reveals different paths for this transmission: descendants of immigrants of lower-income countries show fewer attachments to the gender opinions of their home country. Average local education of natives can facilitate the acculturation process. Immigrants residing in states with higher education reveal a lower tendency to follow their home country attitudes regarding the gender gap.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Gender Gap, Immigration, Human Capital, Education, Assimilation
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J15 - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants ; Non-labor Discrimination; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender ; Non-labor Discrimination

References

1. Alesina, A., & Giuliano, P. (2011). Family ties and political participation. Journal of the European Economic Association, 9(5), 817–839.

2. Alesina, A., Giuliano, P., & Nunn, N. (2013). On the origins of gender roles: Women and the plough. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128(2), 469–530.

3. Anderson, D. M. (2014). In school and out of trouble? The minimum dropout age and juvenile crime. Review of Economics and Statistics, 96(2), 318–331.

4. Angelini, V., Casi, L., & Corazzini, L. (2015). Life satisfaction of immigrants: does cultural assimilation matter? Journal of Population Economics, 28(3), 817–844.

5. Angrist, J., Lavy, V., & Schlosser, A. (2010). Multiple experiments for the causal link between the quantity and quality of children. Journal of Labor Economics, 28(4), 773–824.

6. Antecol, H. (2000). An examination of cross-country differences in the gender gap in labor force participation rates. Labour Economics, 7(4), 409–426.

7. Bahrs, M., & Schumann, M. (2019). Unlucky to be young? The long-term effects of school starting age on smoking behavior and health. Journal of Population Economics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-019-00745-6

8. Barr, A., & Turner, S. (2015). Out of work and into school: Labor market policies and college enrollment during the Great Recession. Journal of Public Economics, 124, 63–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.12.009

9. Barro, R. J., & Lee, J.-W. (2001). International data on educational attainment: updates and implications. Oxford Economic Papers, 53(3), 541–563.

10. Bisin, A., & Verdier, T. (2000). “Beyond the melting pot”: cultural transmission, marriage, and the evolution of ethnic and religious traits. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(3), 955–988.

11. Why the apple doesn’t fall far: Understanding intergenerational transmission of human capital, 95 437 (2005) (testimony of Sandra E Black, Paul J Devereux, & Kjell G Salvanes). https://doi.org/10.1257/0002828053828635

12. Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (1997). Swimming upstream: Trends in the gender wage differential in the 1980s. Journal of Labor Economics, 15(1, Part 1), 1–42.

13. Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (2007). Gender and assimilation among Mexican Americans. Mexican Immigration to the United States, 57–106.

14. Blau, F. D., Kahn, L. M., Liu, A. Y.-H., & Papps, K. L. (2013). The transmission of women’s fertility, human capital, and work orientation across immigrant generations. Journal of Population Economics, 26(2), 405–435.

15. Blau, F. D., Kahn, L. M., & Papps, K. L. (2011). Gender, source country characteristics, and labor market assimilation among immigrants. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 93(1), 43–58.

16. Borjas, G. J. (1985). Assimilation, changes in cohort quality, and the earnings of immigrants. Journal of Labor Economics, 3(4), 463–489.

17. Borjas, G. J. (2015). The slowdown in the economic assimilation of immigrants: Aging and cohort effects revisited again. Journal of Human Capital, 9(4), 483–517.

18. Casey, T., & Dustmann, C. (2008). Intergenerational transmission of language capital and economic outcomes. Journal of Human Resources, 43(3), 660–687.

19. Casey, T., & Dustmann, C. (2010). Immigrants’ identity, economic outcomes and the transmission of identity across generations. The Economic Journal, 120(542).

20. Chiquiar, D., & Hanson, G. H. (2005). International migration, self-selection, and the distribution of wages: Evidence from Mexico and the United States. Journal of Political Economy, 113(2), 239–281.

21. Cobb-Clark, D. A., & Moschion, J. (2017). Gender gaps in early educational achievement. Journal of Population Economics, 30(4), 1093–1134.

22. Cornwell, C., Mustard, D. B., Van Parys, J., & Parys, J. Van. (2013). Noncognitive skills and the gender disparities in test scores and teacher assessments: Evidence from primary school. Journal of Human Resources, 48(1), 236–264.

23. Dayio\uglu, M., Kirdar, M. G., & Tansel, A. (2009). Impact of sibship size, birth order and sex composition on school enrolment in urban Turkey. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 71(3), 399–426.

24. Dennison, C. R. (2019). The crime-reducing benefits of a college degree: evidence from a nationally representative U.S. sample. Criminal Justice Studies, 32(4), 297–316. https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601X.2019.1627533

25. Di Tella, R., Galiant, S., & Schargrodsky, E. (2007). The formation of beliefs: evidence from the allocation of land titles to squatters. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(1), 209–241. 26. DiMaggio, P., & Mukhtar, T. (2004). Arts participation as cultural capital in the United States, 1982–2002: Signs of decline? Poetics, 32(2), 169–194.

27. Doepke, M., & Zilibotti, F. (2017). Parenting with style: Altruism and paternalism in intergenerational preference transmission. Econometrica, 85(5), 1331–1371.

28. Dustmann, C. (1996). The social assimilation of immigrants. Journal of Population Economics, 9(1), 37–54.

29. Dustmann, C., & Fabbri, F. (2003). Language proficiency and labour market performance of immigrants in the UK. The Economic Journal, 113(489), 695–717.

30. Dustmann, C., Frattini, T., & Lanzara, G. (2012). Educational achievement of second-generation immigrants: an international comparison. Economic Policy, 27(69), 143–185. 31. Fernández, R. (2010). Does culture matter?

32. Fernandez, R., & Fogli, A. (2009). Culture: An empirical investigation of beliefs, work, and fertility. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 1(1), 146–177.

33. Fernández, R., & Fogli, A. (2006). Fertility: The role of culture and family experience. Journal of the European Economic Association, 4(2–3), 552–561.

34. Flood, S., King, M., Ruggles, S., Warren, J. R., Rodgers, R., Ruggles, S., & Warren, J. R. (2018). Integrated public use microdata series, current population survey: Version 5.0. [dataset]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. https://doi.org/10.18128/D030.V5.0.

35. Fryer, R. G., & Levitt, S. D. (2010). An empirical analysis of the gender gap in mathematics. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2(2), 210–240.

36. Giuliano, P. (2007). Living arrangements in western europe: Does cultural origin matter? Journal of the European Economic Association, 5(5), 927–952.

37. Giuliano, P., & Spilimbergo, A. (2013). Growing up in a Recession. Review of Economic Studies, 81(2), 787–817.

38. Goldin, C. (2014). A grand gender convergence: Its last chapter. The American Economic Review, 104(4), 1091–1119.

39. Goldin, C., Katz, L. F., & Kuziemko, I. (2006). The homecoming of American college women: The reversal of the college gender gap. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(4), 133.

40. LaLonde, R. J., & Topel, R. H. (1991). Immigrants in the American labor market: Quality, assimilation, and distributional effects. The American Economic Review, 81(2), 297–302.

41. On the origins of gender human capital gaps: Short and long term consequences of teachers’ stereotypical biases, (2015) (testimony of Victor Lavy & Edith Sand).

42. Lubotsky, D. (2007). Chutes or ladders? A longitudinal analysis of immigrant earnings. Journal of Political Economy, 115(5), 820–867.

43. Mayer, S. E. (1997). What money can’t buy: Family income and children’s life chances. Harvard University Press.

44. Noghani, F., & Noghanibehambari, H. (2019). Product Market Competition, Corporate Governance, And Managerial Slack: Evidence from Trade Liberalization. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 16(4). https://doi.org/10.33423/jlae.v16i4.2372

45. Noghanibehambari, H. (2020). School Finance Reform and Juvenile Crime. Available at SSRN 3643640. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3643640

46. Noghanibehambari, H., Noghani, F., & Tavassoli, N. (2020). Child Support Enforcement and Child Mortality. Applied Economics Letters. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2020.1869157

47. NoghaniBehambari, H., Noghani, F., & Tavassoli, N. (2020). Early Life Income Shocks and Old-Age Cause-Specific Mortality. Economic Analysis, 53(2), 1–19.

48. Noghanibehambari, H., Noghani, F., Tavassoli, N., & Toranji, M. (2021). Long-term Effects of In Utero Exposure to “The Year without a Summer.” Economic and Business Review, 23(3), 194–206. https://doi.org/10.15458/2335-4216.1288

49. Noghanibehambari, H., Tavassoli, N., & Noghani, F. (2022). Intergenerational Transmission of Culture Among Second-and-Higher Generation Immigrants: the Case of Age at First Birth and Nonmarital Childbirth. Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy 2022, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/S41996-022-00103-X

50. Nollenberger, N., Rodr\’\iguez-Planas, N., & Sevilla, A. (2016). The math gender gap: The role of culture. The American Economic Review, 106(5), 257–261.

51. Ruggles, S., Genadek, K., Goeken, R., Grover, J., & Sobek, M. (2017). Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 7.0 [dataset]. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 10. https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V7.0.

52. Security., D. H. (2018). 2017 YEARBOOK OF IMMIGRATION STATISTICS. US Government Printing Office.

53. Tavassoli, N., Noghanibehambari, H., Noghani, F., & Toranji, M. (2020). Upswing in Industrial Activity and Infant Mortality during Late 19th Century US. Journal of Environments, 6(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.20448/journal.505.2020.61.1.13

54. Tomes, N. (1981). The family, inheritance, and the intergenerational transmission of inequality. Journal of Political Economy, 89(5), 928–958.

55. Trevelyan, E., Gambino, C., Gryn, T., Larsen, L., Acosta, Y., Grieco, E., Harris, D., & Walters, N. (2016). Characteristics of the US population by generational status: 2013. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.