American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Coming Apart? Cultural Distances in the United States over Time
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 15,
no. 4, October 2023
(pp. 100–141)
Abstract
We analyze trends in cultural distances between groups in the United States defined by income, education, gender, race, and political ideology. We measure cultural distance as the ability to infer an individual's group based on media diet, consumer behavior, time use, social attitudes, or newborn's name. Gender difference in time-use decreased between 1965 and 1995 and has remained constant since. Differences in social attitudes by political ideology, and somewhat by income, have increased over the last four decades. Whites and non-Whites have diverged in consumer behavior. For all other demographic divisions and cultural dimensions, cultural distance has been broadly constant over time.Citation
Bertrand, Marianne, and Emir Kamenica. 2023. "Coming Apart? Cultural Distances in the United States over Time." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 15 (4): 100–141. DOI: 10.1257/app.20210663Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- L82 Entertainment; Media
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
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