An Economic Model of Acculturation under Strategic Complements and Substitutes

We propose a cultural transmission model based on the co-evolution of cultural traits, behaviors, and socialization levels. Cultural traits affect agents’ behavior during their interaction in a strategic environment. In turn, behaviors affect both how much parents directly socialize their children and the traits they decide to transmit. We describe the co-evolution of cultural traits and behaviors, and their long-run outcomes, in terms of well-established acculturation processes: assimilation, integration, marginalization, and separation. We characterize how the occurrence of each process depends on the nature of the strategic environment (complements or substitutes), the cost of transmitting traits, and the size of the majority.