Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36683 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Diskussionsbeiträge No. 2010/5
Publisher: 
Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaft, Berlin
Abstract: 
Interpersonal relations are shaped by the judgements associated with the social categories that individuals perceive in their social contacts. I develop a model of how those judgments form based on a theory of symbolic values. The model depicts the interaction between two values, one associated with an inherited ethnic trait (nationality) and one with an endogenous achievement trait (income). Individuals with lower cognitive ability are predicted to invest more value on nationalism and to have hostile relations with immigrants. Multiple equilibria are possible and better schooling may eliminate equilibria with xenophobia. Econometric findings based on data from three large surveys corroborate the predictions derived from the theoretical model.
Subjects: 
nationalism
xenophobia
interpersonal relations
value systems
JEL: 
Z1
ISBN: 
978-3-941240-17-9
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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