Cultural proximity has been considered as a crucial determinant of bilateral trade flows. Scant emphasis has, instead, been devoted to the investigation of the opposite direction of causality. International trade eases contacts and increases trust among contracting parties and may, then, promote the spread of cultural beliefs across borders. By using World and European Values Surveys data, we provide evidence on the role of trade flows in favoring countries’ cultural convergence for a large sample of countries over the period 1989–2014. Results confirm that international trade narrows differences in cultural beliefs and attitudes, but just when trade partners share some culture-related traits. Common ancestry, religion and legal system as well as high historical bilateral migration flows are necessary conditions for trade reducing cultural distance. Also, the convergence effect turns to be completely driven by trade flows of differentiated goods which entail relationship-specific investments and a deeper commitment between contracting parties.

文化接近度被认为是双边贸易流动的关键决定因素。相反，很少强调研究因果关系的相反方向。国际贸易简化了缔约方之间的联系并增加了信任，并可能促进文化信仰的跨国传播。通过使用世界和欧洲价值观调查数据，我们为 1989 年至 2014 年期间大量国家样本的贸易流动在促进国家文化融合方面的作用提供了证据。结果证实，国际贸易缩小了文化信仰和态度的差异，但只是在贸易伙伴具有一些与文化相关的特征时。共同祖先，宗教和法律制度以及历史上高水平的双边移民流动是贸易减少文化距离的必要条件。此外，趋同效应完全由差异化商品的贸易流驱动，这需要特定关系的投资和缔约方之间更深层次的承诺。