Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/281173 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 1378
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
This paper investigates the relationship between historically rooted norms that drive individuals to adhere to predeftned behavioural standards and attitudes towards loneliness. Focusing on a sub-population of second-generation immigrants, we identify an intergenerationally transmitted component of culture that respects the importance of restrained discipline and rules characterising highly intensive pre-industrial agricultural systems. We illustrate how this cultural dimension impacts perceptions of the quality of social relationships and plays a substantial role in the likelihood of experiencing loneliness. Subsequently, we show the validity of the identifted trait as an instrument for loneliness in a two-stage model for health. We also ftnd that loneliness has a direct impact on body mass index and speciftc mental health issues, with these results being robust across a range of sensitivity checks. These ftndings contribute to the growing body of research emphasising the pivotal role of attitudes in predicting signiftcant economic and health outcomes, thus opening up a new pathway through which deeply-rooted geographical, cultural, and individual characteristics can influence comparative economic development processes in both origin and destination countries.
Subjects: 
loneliness
ancestral characteristics
social norms
health
JEL: 
I12
I14
J14
D91
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.