Title
More than altruism: Cultural norms and remittances among hispanics in the USA
Date Issued
18 January 2016
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Connecticut College
Publisher(s)
Springer Nature
Abstract
Cultural norms embody the communalism and familism that characterize social structures and traditions of care among certain identity groups, notably, Hispanics. In turn, they affect remitting behavior as they do family dynamics thereby extending care transnationally. Using the 2006 Latino National Survey, the largest instrument that captures socioeconomic variables and political perspectives among Hispanics residing in the USA, we constructed a Hispanic identity index that is used to capture the role of cultural norms in remittance behavior. This index is used as an explanatory variable in a logit model for the probability and frequency of remitting money. We find that both the probability and frequency of remitting increase with higher levels of self-defined familism as reflected by the Hispanic index. This effect is stronger among males, renters, foreign-born non-US citizens, and migrants with fewer years of residence in the USA. Incorporating variables such as our Hispanic identity index may shed light on a relatively unexplored area in the field of economics that explains remitting behavior.
Start page
539
End page
567
Volume
17
Issue
2
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Economía
Subjects
Publication version
Version of Record
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84921479677
Source
Journal of International Migration and Integration
ISSN of the container
14883473
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus