Formation and persistence of oppositional identities

Alberto Bisin, Eleonora Patacchini, Thierry Verdier and Yves Zenou

European Economic Review, 2011, vol. 55, issue 8, 1046-1071

Abstract: We develop a dynamic model of identity formation that explains why ethnic minorities may choose to adopt oppositional identities (i.e. some individuals may reject or not the dominant culture) and why this behavior may persist over time. We first show that the prevalence of an oppositional culture in the minority group cannot always be sustained in equilibrium. Indeed, because the size of the majority group is larger, there is an “imposed” process of exposition to role models from the majority group that favors the diffusion of mainstream values in the minority community. In spite of this, an oppositional culture in the minority group can nevertheless be sustained in steady state if there is enough cultural segmentation in terms of role models, or if the size of the minority group is large enough, or if the degree of oppositional identity it implies is high enough. We also demonstrate that the higher the level of harassment and the number of racist individuals in the society, the more likely an oppositional minority culture will emerge. We finally show that ethnic identity and socialization effort can be more intense in mixed rather than segregated neighborhoods.

Keywords: Ethnicity; Role models; Peer effects; Cultural transmission; Racism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (84)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292111000493
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Formation and Persistence of Oppositional Identities (2011)
Working Paper: Formation and persistence of oppositional identities (2011)
Working Paper: Formation and persistence of oppositional identities (2011)
Working Paper: Formation and Persistence of Oppositional Identities (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:55:y:2011:i:8:p:1046-1071

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2011.04.009

Access Statistics for this article

European Economic Review is currently edited by T.S. Eicher, A. Imrohoroglu, E. Leeper, J. Oechssler and M. Pesendorfer

More articles in European Economic Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().