Cultural Persistence of Self-Assessed Health: A Study of First- and Second-Generation Migrants

Abstract

ObjectivesWe measure the cultural persistence of health assessments; namely how individual assessments reflect the culture individuals are being brought up in by examining the association between first (and second) generation migrants' health assessments and those of their home country (of their parents). MeasureWe individual data records from over thirty host European countries and over ninety sending countries, as well as other controls for migration timing and legal citizenship status and leverage a wide range of sample countries to attenuate the presence of selection bias. ResultsOur estimates document evidence of cultural persistence of health self-assessments in a wide array of different specifications which vary with age and are thus likely to be caused by individual variation in self-reported health over the life course. However, the effect size is sensitive to the inclusion of country of residence fixed effects as well as the presence of selection on observables and other robustness checks. ConclusionThe interpretation of cross-country comparisons of self-reported health should consider that culture influences both actual health and health self-reports. Funding: No funding has been received for this project and authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.