Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/210923 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 1282
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
Tolerance - respecting individual choice and differences among people - is a prominent feature of modern European culture. That immigrants embrace this kind of liberal value is arguably important for integration, a central policy goal. We provide a rigorous study of what factors in the ancestral countries of second-generation immigrants - including formal and informal institutions - that predict their level of tolerance towards gay people. Using the epidemiological method allows us to rule out reverse causality. Out of the 46 factors examined, one emerges as very robust: a Muslim background. Tolerance is lower the larger the share of Muslims in the country from which the parents emigrated. An instrumental-variable analysis shows that the main mechanism is not through the individual being a Muslim but through the individual being highly religious. Two additional attitudes among people in the ancestral country (valuing children being tolerant and respectful, and valuing children taking responsibility), as well as impartial institutions in the ancestral country, predict higher individual tolerance. Our findings thus point to an important role for both formal- and informal-institutional background factors in shaping tolerance.
Subjects: 
Tolerance
Integration
Liberal
Culture
Institutions
Religion
JEL: 
F02
F22
Z13
Z18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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