Faith and Assimilation: Italian Immigrants in the US
研究了1890至1920年间美国意大利天主教堂对移民同化的影响，发现教堂减少了需要跨群体互动的社会和经济同化，但对不依赖跨群体协调的方面无影响或正面影响，并提高了移民子女的识字率和英语能力。
Abstract We study the effects of ethnic religious organisations on immigrant assimilation, assembling novel data on Italian Catholic churches across US counties between 1890 and 1920. Exploiting variation in the timing of church entry, we find that Italian churches reduced social and economic assimilation along dimensions that require more inter-group interactions, but had null or positive effects on outcomes for which cross-group coordination is less important. We provide evidence that coordination within the Italian community and natives' backlash are plausible pathways for our results. We also document that churches increased literacy and English-speaking ability of immigrant children.