Intergenerational Transmissions and Sibling Correlations in
Extreme Right-Wing Party Affinity and Attitudes towards
Immigration$
Alexandra Avdeenko
DIW Berlin
Thomas Siedler
University of Hamburg
DIW Berlin
University of Essex
Abstract
Preferences, and in particular political preferences, are influenced by a complex interplay of
incentives and processes of socialization. This study analyzes the importance of the family and parental socialization for the development of children’s attitudes towards extreme
right-wing parties and immigration. Using rich longitudinal data from the German SocioEconomic Panel, the intergenerational estimates suggest that the strongest and most important predictor for young people’s right-wing extremism are parents’ right-wing extremist
attitudes. While intergenerational associations for attitudes towards immigration are equally
high for sons and daughters, we find considerable gender differences in the intergenerational
transmission of right-wing extremist party affinity. Compared to the intergenerational transmission of other parties, the high association between sons’ and fathers’ right-wing extremist
attitudes is particularly striking. Sibling correlations in political preferences also point to
the importance of the family for children’s political socialization.
$
We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
JEL-Codes: C23,D72,J62,P16.
Keywords: Political preferences, right-wing extremism, attitudes towards immigration, reverse causality,
longitudinal data, sibling correlations, intergenerational links
Email addresses: aavdeenko@diw.de (Alexandra Avdeenko), Thomas.Siedler@wiso.uni-hamburg.de
(Thomas Siedler)
$$
February 7, 2013