Cultural dispositions and poverty dynamics in Germany, 1992-2015

• In Event: 3154 - Poverty

Abstract

A leading approach to the understanding of the persistence of relative deprivation links poverty to lasting cultural dispositions that shape life-style choices and outcomes. While arguments focusing on the role of cultural dispositions in shaping the risk of poverty have attracted intense academic and public debates, evidence on the subject has been mixed. Most of the evidence fueling the debate comes from case studies of selected areas and groups. Employing fixed-effects models and treatment effects models, we offer the first attempt to conduct a rigorous, nationally representative examination of the causal role of cultural attributes in shaping the risk of poverty using data for household members from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Building on life-course scholarship, we also examine whether the timing of experiences of poverty plays a role in shaping cultural dispositions, resulting in stronger associations in intergenerational models compared to models focusing on adults during their working careers. We find no evidence of a causal role of cultural dispositions and poverty within an adult’s life course. By contrast, intergenerational models focusing on the impact of familial poverty on the cultural dispositions of adolescents support the culture of poverty argument, but only with respect to locus of control. We also document the impact of locus of control on the pattern of transition to adulthood, suggesting that some cultural attributes do play a role in shaping the cycle of poverty.

Authors

• Asaf Levanon, University of Haifa

• Markus Gangl, J.W.Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main

• Rona Geffen, Goethe University

• Evgeny Saburov, University of Haifa