Cultural Transmission and Discrimination

Maria Saez-Marti and Yves Zenou

No 1880, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Each worker belongs to either the majority or the minority group and, irrespective of the group she belongs to, can have good or bad work habits. These traits are transmitted from one generation to the next through a learning and imitation process which depends on parents' purposeful investment on the trait and the social environment where children live. In a segregated society, we show that, if a high enough proportion of employers have taste-based prejudices against minority workers, their prejudices are always self-fulfilled in steady state. Affirmative Action improves the welfare of minorities without affecting majority workers whereas integration is beneficial to minority workers but detrimental to workers from the majority group. If Affirmative Action quotas are high enough or integration is strong enough, employers' negative stereotypes cannot be sustained in steady-state.

Keywords: overlapping generations; rational expectations; multiple equilibria; ghetto culture; peer effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2005-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Published - published in: Journal of Urban Economics, 2012, 72 (2-3), 137-146

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Related works:
Journal Article: Cultural transmission and discrimination (2012)
Working Paper: Cultural Transmission and Discrimination (2010)
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