Inherited Social Trust and Depression Among Second‐Generation Immigrants

ABSTRACT This paper estimates the causal effect of culturally inherited social trust on the severity of depressive symptoms among second‐generation immigrants. To isolate the impact of inherited social trust on depressive symptoms, I regress the depressive symptoms of second‐generation immigrants against the average social trust in their parents' country of origin. Using a sample of second‐generation immigrants residing in 22 European countries, I show that a one‐standard‐deviation increase in inherited social trust reduces the severity of depressive symptoms, as measured by the CES‐D8 depression scale, by 6.5% of a standard deviation. Overall, this paper highlights a causal relationship between higher inherited social trust and less severe depressive symptoms among second‐generation immigrants.