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Cited by 118Culture, Economy, and Development StudiesGender, Labor, and Family DynamicsFamily Dynamics and Relationships

The Power of the Family

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Alesina, Alberto, Giuliano, Paola·2007·National Bureau of Economic Research
DOI 10.3386/w13051
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Abstract

The structure of family relationships influences economic behavior and attitudes.We define our measure of family ties using individual responses from the World Value Survey regarding the role of the family and the love and respect that children need to have for their parents for over 70 countries.We show that strong family ties imply more reliance on the family as an economic unit which provides goods and services and less on the market and on the government for social insurance.With strong family ties home production is higher, labor force participation of women and youngsters, and geographical mobility, lower.Families are larger (higher fertility and higher family size) with strong family ties, which is consistent with the idea of the family as an important economic unit.We present evidence on cross country regressions.To assess causality we look at the behavior of second generation immigrants in the US and we employ a variable based on the grammatical rule of pronoun drop as an instrument for family ties.Our results overall indicate a significant influence of the strength of family ties on economic outcomes.

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  • Intense loyalty and interdependence on the family (i.e., strong family ties) are generally considered important components of the cross-cultural dimension of collectivism-individualism, with collectivism positively associated with strong family ties in multiple cross-cultural studies.

    “Intense loyalty and interdependence on the family (i.e., strong family ties) are generally considered important components of the cross-cultural dimension of collectivism-individualism, with collectivism positively associated with strong family ties in multiple cross-cultural studies”

    From Parasite-stress promotes in-group assortative sociality: The cases of strong family ties and heightened religiosity (2012) · cites this paper as Alesina & Giuliano 2007

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3 of the 39 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 12

  1. Alesina A. and E. La Ferrara (2005) " Preference for Redistribution in the Land of Opportunity" Journal of Public Economics, 89 897-931
  2. Alesina A. and E. La Ferrara (2002), "Who Trust Others?" Journal of Public Eco- nomics 85, 207-34.
  3. Banfield, E. C. (1958), The Moral Basis of a Backward Society, New York: The Free Press
  4. Barro, R. and R. McCleary (2006), "Religion and Economy", Journal of Economic Perspectives 20, 1-25
  5. Blachflower D. and A. Oswald (2004)' Wellbeing over time in Britain and in the US" Journal of Public Economics, 88, 1359-86
  6. Easton, S.T. and M.A. Walker (1997), "Income, Growth and Economic Freedom", American Economic Review 87(2), 328-332.
  7. Esping-Andersen (1999), Social Foundation of Post-Industrial Economies, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999
  8. Fukuyama, F. (1995) Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, New York: Free Press
  9. Gambetta, A. (1990), The Sicilian Mafia, Oxford University Press, Oxford UK
  10. Knack, S., P. J. Zak (2001), "Trust and Growth", Economic Journal 111 (470), 295-321
  11. Layard, R.: "Happiness Lessons from a New Science" (2005), Penguin, UK.
  12. Putnam (1993), Making Democracy Work. Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton-NJ: Princeton University Press.

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Authors
Alesina, A., & Giuliano, P.
Affiliations
National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
Corresponding author
Alesina, Alberto
ORCID
Giuliano, Paola
Venue
National Bureau of Economic Research
Publisher
National Bureau of Economic Research
Published
2007-04
DOI
10.3386/w13051
OpenAlex
W2891098585
Cited by
117
References
39
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 6
Type
report
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • National Bureau of Economic Research (publishedVersion)
  • SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Boston College
  • Brown University
  • Harvard Business School
  • University of California, San Diego
  • Stanford Graduate School of Business
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Culture, Economy, and Development Studies
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
Keywords
family ties, family as economic unit, social insurance, household production, women's employment, youth labor force participation, spatial mobility, fertility, family size, immigrant children, cross-national comparison, economic attitudes

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