Social Capital and the Family: Evidence that Strong Family Ties Cultivate Civic Virtues

No 967, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: I establish a positive relationship between family ties and civic virtues, as captured by disapproval of tax and benefit cheating, corruption, and a range of other dimensions of exploiting others for personal gain. I find that family ties are a complement to social capital, using within country evidence from 83 nations and data on second generation immigrants in 29 countries with ancestry in 85 nations. Strong families cultivate universalist values and produce more civic and altruistic individuals. The results provide a constructive role for families in promoting family values, which challenge an ‘amoral familism.’ Moreover, strong families are complementary with more developed and democratic institutions. The results provide a constructive role for families in promoting family values that support successful societies with a high state and fiscal capacity.

Keywords: Family ties; Civic; Family values; Cultural transmission; Altruism; Social capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 H26 P16 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2013-06-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-evo, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Ljunge, Martin, 'Social Capital and the Family: Evidence that Strong Family Ties Cultivate Civic Virtues' in Economica, 2015, pages 103-136.

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Journal Article: Social Capital and the Family: Evidence that Strong Family Ties Cultivate Civic Virtues (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0967

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