IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eurase/v12y2022i3d10.1007_s40822-022-00212-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does international trade favor proximity in cultural beliefs?

Author

Listed:
  • Chiara Franco

    (University of Pisa)

  • Daniela Maggioni

    (Catholic University of Milan)

Abstract

Cultural proximity has been considered as a crucial determinant of bilateral trade flows. Scant emphasis has, instead, been devoted to the investigation of the opposite direction of causality. International trade eases contacts and increases trust among contracting parties and may, then, promote the spread of cultural beliefs across borders. By using World and European Values Surveys data, we provide evidence on the role of trade flows in favoring countries’ cultural convergence for a large sample of countries over the period 1989–2014. Results confirm that international trade narrows differences in cultural beliefs and attitudes, but just when trade partners share some culture-related traits. Common ancestry, religion and legal system as well as high historical bilateral migration flows are necessary conditions for trade reducing cultural distance. Also, the convergence effect turns to be completely driven by trade flows of differentiated goods which entail relationship-specific investments and a deeper commitment between contracting parties.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiara Franco & Daniela Maggioni, 2022. "Does international trade favor proximity in cultural beliefs?," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 12(3), pages 449-477, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurase:v:12:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s40822-022-00212-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s40822-022-00212-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40822-022-00212-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40822-022-00212-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrei Shleifer & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Rafael La Porta, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 285-332, June.
    2. Enrico Spolaore & Romain Wacziarg, 2009. "The Diffusion of Development," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(2), pages 469-529.
    3. Maystre, Nicolas & Olivier, Jacques & Thoenig, Mathias & Verdier, Thierry, 2014. "Product-based cultural change: Is the village global?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 212-230.
    4. Nicolas Maystre & Jacques Olivier & Mathias Thoenig, 2014. "Product-based cultural change: Is the village global?," Post-Print halshs-00979107, HAL.
    5. Francesc Ortega & Giovanni Peri, 2016. "Openness and income: The roles of trade and migration," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Economics of International Migration, chapter 10, pages 309-329, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    6. Felbermayr, Gabriel J. & Toubal, Farid, 2010. "Cultural proximity and trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 279-293, February.
    7. Bedassa Tadesse & Roger White, 2010. "Does Cultural Distance Hinder Trade in Goods? A Comparative Study of Nine OECD Member Nations," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 237-261, April.
    8. Ambos, Björn & Håkanson, Lars, 2014. "The Concept of Distance in International Management Research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-7.
    9. Guido Tabellini, 2010. "Culture and Institutions: Economic Development in the Regions of Europe," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 677-716, June.
    10. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry & Ries, John, 2010. "The erosion of colonial trade linkages after independence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 1-14, May.
    11. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2009. "Cultural Biases in Economic Exchange?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1095-1131.
    12. Yu, Shu & Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd & de Haan, Jakob, 2015. "Trade, trust and the rule of law," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 102-115.
    13. Rauch, James E., 1999. "Networks versus markets in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 7-35, June.
    14. Klaus Desmet & Michel Breton & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Shlomo Weber, 2011. "The stability and breakup of nations: a quantitative analysis," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 183-213, September.
    15. Elhanan Helpman & Marc Melitz & Yona Rubinstein, 2008. "Estimating Trade Flows: Trading Partners and Trading Volumes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(2), pages 441-487.
    16. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    17. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano, 2015. "Culture and Institutions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(4), pages 898-944, December.
    18. Paola Giuliano & Antonio Spilimbergo & Giovanni Tonon, 2014. "Genetic distance, transportation costs, and trade -super-1," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 179-198, January.
    19. Hochman, Gal & Tabakis, Chrysostomos & Zilberman, David, 2013. "The impact of international trade on institutions and infrastructure," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 126-140.
    20. Eva Spring & Volker Grossmann, 2016. "Does bilateral trust across countries really affect international trade and factor mobility?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 103-136, February.
    21. Melitz, Jacques, 2008. "Language and foreign trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(4), pages 667-699, May.
    22. Castellani, Marco, 2019. "Does culture matter for the economic performance of countries? An overview of the literature," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 700-717.
    23. Guido Tabellini, 2008. "The Scope of Cooperation: Values and Incentives," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 905-950.
    24. Daniel Berkowitz & Johannes Moenius & Katharina Pistor, 2006. "Trade, Law, and Product Complexity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 363-373, May.
    25. Teresa L. Cyrus, 2012. "Cultural Distance and Bilateral Trade," Global Economy Journal (GEJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(4), pages 1-25, November.
    26. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01109509 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Bedassa Tadesse & Roger White, 2010. "Cultural distance as a determinant of bilateral trade flows: do immigrants counter the effect of cultural differences?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 147-152, January.
    28. Larimo, Jorma, 2003. "Form of investment by Nordic firms in world markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(10), pages 791-803, October.
    29. Matthias Helble, 2007. "Is God Good for Trade?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 385-413, August.
    30. Chong Wha Lee & Soonchan Park, 2016. "Does Religious Similarity Matter in International Trade in Services?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 409-425, March.
    31. James E. Rauch & Vitor Trindade, 2002. "Ethnic Chinese Networks In International Trade," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 116-130, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alessia LO TURCO & Daniela MAGGIONI, 2016. "For God's sake. The impact of religious proximity on firms' exports," Working Papers 418, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    2. Fensore, Irene & Legge, Stefan & Schmid, Lukas, 2022. "Ancestry and international trade," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 33-51.
    3. Lo Turco, Alessia & Maggioni, Daniela, 2018. "Effects of Islamic religiosity on bilateral trust in trade: The case of Turkish exports," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 947-965.
    4. Falck, Oliver & Heblich, Stephan & Lameli, Alfred & Südekum, Jens, 2012. "Dialects, cultural identity, and economic exchange," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 225-239.
    5. Melitz, Jacques & Toubal, Farid, 2014. "Native language, spoken language, translation and trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 351-363.
    6. Li, Chang & Yang, Lianxing, 2020. "Import to invest: Impact of cultural goods on cross-border mergers and acquisitions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 354-364.
    7. Olivier BARGAIN & Jean-Marie CARDEBAT & Raphaël CHIAPPINI, 2020. "Trade Uncorked: Genetic Resistance and Quality Heterogeneity in Wine Exports," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2020-18, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    8. repec:edn:sirdps:417 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Nunn, Nathan & Trefler, Daniel, 2014. "Domestic Institutions as a Source of Comparative Advantage," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 263-315, Elsevier.
    10. Krieger, Tim & Renner, Laura & Ruhose, Jens, 2018. "Long-term relatedness between countries and international migrant selection," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 35-54.
    11. Se Mi Park, 2021. "The interrelation between formal and informal institutions through international trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1358-1381, November.
    12. Tim Krieger & Laura Renner & Jens Ruhose, 2015. "Genetic Distance and International Migrant Selection," CESifo Working Paper Series 5453, CESifo.
    13. Matteo Fiorini & Giorgia Giovannetti & Mauro Lanati & Filippo Santi, 2021. "Asymmetric cultural proximity and greenfield foreign direct investment," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(9), pages 2572-2603, September.
    14. Maystre, Nicolas & Olivier, Jacques & Thoenig, Mathias & Verdier, Thierry, 2014. "Product-based cultural change: Is the village global?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 212-230.
    15. Felbermayr, Gabriel J. & Toubal, Farid, 2010. "Cultural proximity and trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 279-293, February.
    16. Nicolas Sauter, 2012. "Talking trade: language barriers in intra-Canadian commerce," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 301-323, February.
    17. Fensore, Irene & Legge, Stefan & Schmid, Lukas, 2017. "Human Barriers to International Trade," Economics Working Paper Series 1712, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    18. Peter H. Egger & Andrea Lassmann, 2015. "The Causal Impact of Common Native Language on International Trade: Evidence from a Spatial Regression Discontinuity Design," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(584), pages 699-745, May.
    19. Hillel Rapoport & Sulin Sardoschau & Arthur Silve, 2020. "Migration and Cultural Change," Working Papers 2020-10, CEPII research center.
    20. Yongwei Chen & Wei‐Min Hu & Radek Szulga & Buoyuan Xue, 2018. "Cultural Differences and Interprovincial Trade in China: Effect of Surname Distance and its Mechanisms," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 609-631, October.
    21. Sucharita Ghosh & Donald Lien & Steven Yamarik, 2017. "Does the Confucius Institute Network Impact Cultural Distance? A Panel Data Analysis of Cross-Border Flows in and out of China," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 31(3), pages 299-323, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cultural distance; Trade; Trust; Background;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eurase:v:12:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s40822-022-00212-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.