published as 'Attitudes towards foreigners and Jews in Germany: identifying the determinants of xenophobia in a large opinion survey ' in: Review of Economics of the Household, 2011, 9 (1), 99-128
The ultimate aim of opinion surveys is the provision of information on the distribution of
preferences and perceptions at the individual level. Yet, eliciting this information from the
data is typically difficult. This paper uses a structural model to explain the answers on a set of
questions regarding the perception of foreigners and Jews by native Germans. In this model
it is assumed that in addition to observable individual characteristics there exists an
underlying unobserved attitude towards minorities which drives the distribution of answers by
native respondents. This latent variable in turn is assumed to be influenced by a set of
observable socio-economic characteristics of the individuals. In order to estimate this model it
is necessary to impose strong identification restrictions. Estimation results show that
education is the key correlate of the perception of foreigners and Jews in Germany.
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