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The purpose of the paper is to examine how much difference in income can be explained by familial culture that persists in different societies.

We employ a two-step methodology to evaluate the impact of familial culture on income across countries. In the first step, we construct the macro measures of familial culture from micro survey data. In the second step, the growth model is estimated.

First-step micro regression results show that family is more important to female, richer, highly educated, unemployed and married individuals. Male, poorer, less educated and unemployed individuals are more likely to respect and love parents unconditionally. The same group is also more likely to think that parents must do the best for their kids. Finally, the macro results show that the strength of national familial ties explains significant differences in income across countries.

We show that countries with weak family ties are richer than those with strong family ties. These results are useful for policymakers who design public policies that accommodate the type of familial culture that persists in their society.

We construct the macro measures of familial culture from the micro survey data. The paper adds to the literature on the effect of culture on income at the macro level.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics and persistence of interpersonal trust among immigrants in the USA. More specifically, the authors investigate the association between the levels of trust of US immigrants and the levels of trust in their home countries across different cohorts and generations of immigrants.

In order to quantify the extent of this relationship, the authors use two large sets of survey data, the General Social Survey and the World Value Survey, to construct the trust of immigrants in the USA and their levels of trust in their country of origin. The final sample size for the immigrants’ trust is 27,531 observations.

The examination of the two trust variables at different levels and for different cohorts show that there is an association between the levels of US immigrants’ trust and the levels of trust in the country of origin, suggesting that immigrants bring their culture with them and transmit it to the next generation. However, this association differs across various cohorts and generations of immigrants. The transmission of trust is strong in the second generation but becomes weaker in the third generation and seems to disappear in the fourth generation.

Empirical estimates of how long the cultural traits embodied in a new immigrant are sustained in the newly adopted country are essential to the appraisal of the current apparent segregation of immigrants in the USA.

This paper focuses on the under-researched area of the dynamic properties of immigrants’ trust by using large data sets from social surveys. The authors examine this cultural assimilation across different cohorts and generations.