Social Capital and Health: Evidence That Ancestral Trust Promotes Health among Children of Immigrants

Martin Ljunge

No 1046, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: This paper presents evidence that generalized trust promotes health. Children of immigrants in a broad set of European countries with ancestry from across the world are studied. Individuals are examined within country of residence using variation in trust across countries of ancestry. There is a significant positive estimate of ancestral trust in explaining selfassessed health. The finding is robust to accounting for individual, parental, and extensive ancestral country characteristics. Individuals with higher ancestral trust are also less likely to be hampered by health problems in their daily life, providing evidence of trust influencing real life outcomes. Individuals with high trust feel and act healthier, enabling a more productive life.

Keywords: Trust; Social capital; Self assessed health; Subjective health; Self reported health; Cultural transmission; Children of immigrants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 D83 I12 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2014-11-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-mig and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Published as Ljunge, Martin, 'Social Capital and Health: Evidence That Ancestral Trust Promotes Health among Children of Immigrants' in Economics and Human Biology, 2014, pages 165-186.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Social capital and health: Evidence that ancestral trust promotes health among children of immigrants (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1046

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