Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

International Economics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2010

Cultural distance

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in International Economics

The Effects Of Refugee And Non-Refugee Immigrants On Us Trade With Their Home Countries, Roger White, Bedassa Tadesse Jun 2010

The Effects Of Refugee And Non-Refugee Immigrants On Us Trade With Their Home Countries, Roger White, Bedassa Tadesse

Economics

Employing data on US immigrants and trade with 59 home countries for the years 1996–2001, we compare the extent to which refugee and nonrefugee immigrants affect US trade with their home countries and provide the first evidence of variation in the US immigrant–trade relationship across immigrant types. We also consider the abilities of refugee and non-refugee immigrants to offset the trade-inhibiting influence of cultural distance. Our results show that while immigrants, in general, exert positive influences on US imports from – and exports to – their home countries, the influence of refugee immigrants is quite minimal when compared with that …


Does Cultural Distance Hinder Trade In Goods? A Comparative Study Of Nine Oecd Member Nations, Roger White, Bedassa Tadesse Apr 2010

Does Cultural Distance Hinder Trade In Goods? A Comparative Study Of Nine Oecd Member Nations, Roger White, Bedassa Tadesse

Economics

We examine the effect of cultural distance, a proxy for the lack of a minimum reservoir of trust necessary to initiate and complete trade deals, on bilateral trade flows. Employing data for 67 countries that span the years 1996– 2001, we estimate a series of modified gravity specifications and find that cultural dissimilarity between nations has an economically significant and consistently negative effect on aggregate and disaggregated trade flows; however, estimated effects vary in magnitude and economic significance across measures of trade and our cohort of OECD reference countries. The consistently negative influence of cultural distance indicates that policymakers may …


Cultural Distance As A Determinant Of Bilateral Trade Flows: Do Immigrants Counter The Effect Of Cultural Distance?, Roger White, Bedassa Tadesse Feb 2010

Cultural Distance As A Determinant Of Bilateral Trade Flows: Do Immigrants Counter The Effect Of Cultural Distance?, Roger White, Bedassa Tadesse

Economics

We introduce ‘cultural distance’ as a measure of the degree to which shared norms and values in one country differ from those in another country, and employ a modified gravity specification to examine whether such cultural differences affect the volume of trade flows. Employing data for US statelevel exports to the 75 trading partners for which measures of cultural distance can be constructed, we find that greater cultural differences between the United States and a trading partner reduces state-level exports to that country. This result holds for aggregate exports, cultural and noncultural products exports as well, but with significantly different …