Publication Date

12-2008

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

North American Journal of Economics and Finance

Volume

19

Issue

3

Abstract

We examine the relationships between immigrants, cultural distance and state-level exports, employing state-specific immigrant stocks and total US immigrant stocks, separately, and a measure of cultural distance recently introduced by [Tadesse, B., & White, R. (2008b). Cultural distance as a determinant of bilateral trade flows: Do immigrants counter the effect of cultural distance? Applied Economic Letters]. A positive link between immigrants and aggregate exports is reported and, while cultural distance is found to reduce exports, immigrants partially offset the effects of cultural distance by increasing both the intensity of existing exports and the likelihood that exporting occurs. However, heterogeneity in immigrant effects is observed across cultural product sub-classifications, suggesting variation in the ability of immigrants to influence trade by overcoming information asymmetries.

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