Detection of local interactions from the spatial pattern of names in France

Keith Head (1) , Thierry Mayer (2, 3, 4, 5)

1 Sauder - Sauder School of Business [British Columbia]
2 CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research
3 CEPII - Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales
4 PSE - Paris School of Economics
5 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne

Using data on name distributions in 95 French d'epartements observed from 1946 to 2002, we investigate spatial and social mechanisms behind the transmission of parental preferences. Drawing inspiration from recent work on social interactions, we develop a simple discrete choice model that predicts a linear relationship between choices by agents in one location and the choices made in neighboring areas. We explain the shares of parents that give their children Saint, Arabic, and American-type names. In a second exercise we examine the effect of distance between locations on differences in name-type shares. In our last exercise we consider dissimilarity in actual names rather than name-types. Using Manhattan Distances as our metric, we find a steady and substantial decline in the importance of geographic distance. Meanwhile, differences in class and national origins have increasing explanatory power.

Mots clés: préférences

Domaines: Economies et finances

Keith Head, Thierry Mayer. Detection of local interactions from the spatial pattern of names in France. Journal of Regional Science, 2008, 48 (1), pp.67-95. ⟨10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.00548.x⟩. ⟨hal-00266554⟩