Economic History Seminar

Du 08/12/2021 de 12:00 à 13:30

Salle R2.20, Campus Jourdan

HADDAD Joanne (ULB)

Settlers and norms

The distinctive traits of early settlers at initial stages of institutional development may be crucial for cultural formation. In 1973, the cultural geographer Wilbur Zelinsky postulated this in his doctrine of ``first effective settlement''. There is however little empirical evidence supporting the role of early settlers in shaping culture over the long run. This paper tests this hypothesis by relating early settlers' culture to within state variation in gender norms in the United States. I capture settlers' culture using past female labor force participation, women's suffrage and financial rights at their place of origin. I document the distinctive characteristics of settlers' populations and provide suggestive evidence in support of the spatial (across locations) and vertical (over time) transmission of gender norms. My results show that women's labor supply is higher, in both the short and long run, in U.S. counties that historically hosted a larger settler population originating from places with favorable gender attitudes. My findings shed new light on the importance of immigrants’ characteristics and their countries/states of origin for cultural formation in hosting societies.