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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
| By: | Gustavsson, Magnus (Department of Economics); Jordahl, Henrik (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We present new evidence on the influence of income inequality on generalized trust. Using individual panel data from Swedish counties together with an instrumental variable strategy we find that differences in disposable income, and especially differences among people in the bottom half of the income distribution, are associated with lower trust. The relationship between income inequality and trust is particularly strong for people with a strong aversion against income differentials. We also find that the proportion of people born in a foreign country is negatively associated with trust. |
| Keywords: | trust; social capital; inequality |
| JEL: | C23 D31 Z13 |
| Date: | 2006–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2006_003&r=soc |
| By: | Astrid Hopfensitz (Faculty of Economics and Econometrics, University of Amsterdam); Ernesto Reuben (Faculty of Economics and Econometrics, University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper experimentally explores how the enforcement of cooperative behavior in a social dilemma is facilitated through institutional as well as emotional mechanisms. Recent studies emphasize the importance of negatively valued emotions, such as anger, which motivate individuals to punish free riders. However, these types of emotions also trigger retaliatory behavior by the punished individuals. This makes the enforcement of a cooperative norm more costly. We show that in addition to anger, ‘social’ emotions like shame and guilt need to be present for punishment to be an effective deterrent of uncooperative actions. They play a key role by subduing the desire of punished individuals to retaliate and by motivating them to behave more cooperatively in the future. |
| Keywords: | Emotions; Punishment; Retaliation; Counter punishment; Social Norms; Fairness; Cooperation |
| JEL: | Z13 C92 D74 H41 |
| Date: | 2005–08–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20050075&r=soc |
| By: | Fehr, Ernst; Kremhelmer, Susanne; Schmidt, Klaus M. |
| Abstract: | We report on several experiments on the optimal allocation of ownership rights. The experiments confirm the property rights approach by showing that the ownership structure affects relationship-specific investments and that subjects attain the most efficient ownership allocation despite starting from different initial conditions. However, in contrast to the property rights approach, the most efficient ownership structure is joint ownership. These results are neither consistent with the self-interest model nor with models that assume that all people behave fairly, but they can be explained by the theory of inequity aversion that focuses on the interaction between selfish and fair players. |
| Keywords: | double moral hazard; fairness; incomplete contracts; ownership rights; reciprocity |
| JEL: | C7 C9 J3 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5369&r=soc |
| By: | Taiki Takahashi (Hokkaido University) |
| Abstract: | Social memory plays a pivotal role in social behaviors, from mating behaviors to cooperative behaviors based on reciprocal altruism. More specifically, social/person recognition memory is supposed, by behavioral-economic and game-theoretic analysis, to be required for tit- for-tat like cooperative behaviors to evolve under the N-person iterated prisonerfs dilemma game condition. Meanwhile, humans are known to show a social stress response during face-to-face social interactions, which might affect economic behaviors. Furthermore, it is known that there are individual differences in a social stress response, which might be reflected in individual differences in various types of economic behaviors, partially via different capacities of social memory. In the present study, we investigated the acute effects of social stress- induced free cortisol (a stress hormone) elevation on hippocampus- dependent social memory by utilizing the Trier social stress test (consisting of a public speech and a mental arithmetic task).We also examine the correlation between an economic behavior-related personality trait (i.e., general trust scale) and social stress-induced cortisol elevations. We found that (1) social stress acutely impairs social memory during social interaction and (2) interpersonal trust reduces social stress response. Together, interpersonal trust may modulate economic behaviors via stress hormonefs action on social cognition- related brain regions. |
| Keywords: | neuroeconomics, hormone, trust, game theory, social cognition, stress, social memory |
| JEL: | C9 |
| Date: | 2005–12–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpex:0512007&r=soc |
| By: | Deirdre Crowe; Emma Calvert |
| Abstract: | In this paper we argue that many scholars using the conceptual framework of social capital have largely ignored or minimised two important elements: closure and emergence. First we chart the rise of social capital (section two), then we outline some of the existing criticisms of social capital (section three). In section four, we offer a four-way classification system, based on the recognition of emergence and/or closure, of the most popular and widely utilised definitions of social capital. Such categorisation allows for the analysis of how social capital is understood across academic disciplines and how it has been taken up in the policy making arena. Finally we argue that it is only by conceptualising social capital as having emergent properties and as inherently exclusionary that it becomes theoretically and analytically useful to sociological enquiry. |
| Date: | 2005–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp84&r=soc |
| By: | Daniel Sgroi |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to predict some possible futures for the World Wide Web based on several key network parameters: size, complexity, cost and increasing connection speed thorough the uptake of broadband technology. This is done through the production of a taxonomy specifically evaluating the stability properties of the fully-connected star and complete networks, based on the Jackson and Wolinsky (1996) connections model modified to incorporate complexity concerns. We find that when connection speeds are low neither the star nor complete networks are stable, and when connection speeds are high the star network is usually stable, while the complete network is never stable. For intermediate speed levels much depends upon the other parameters. Under plausible assumptions about the future, we find that the Web may be increasingly dominated by a single intermediate site, perhaps best described as a search engine. |
| Keywords: | social network theory, connection speed, broadband, complete network, fully-connected star |
| JEL: | D85 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:0603&r=soc |
| By: | Avichai Snir; Daniel Levy |
| Abstract: | Economic organization of the imaginary worlds depicted in popular literary works may be viewed as a mirror to public opinion on the economic organization of life. If a book becomes a best-seller, it is because the book conveys messages, feelings, and events the readers can relate to. In other words, the book’s readers identify with the set of norms and rules that govern the development of the plot and the actions of its heroes. Therefore, a best seller, as a book that successfully relates to readers of its time, can teach us on the norms and believes of its audience. Following this line of thought, we use the method of deconstruction to analyze the highly successful J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter series. Studying the books within their social context allows us to learn about people’s norms, and their perceptions of issues such as the role of government, the structure of financial markets, poverty and inequality, etc. Thus, by looking at the Potterian economy through magnifying glasses, we obtain a perspective on what people might view as an ideal economic structure. Some aspects of this ideal world, we find, are quite different from the real world. |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:0528&r=soc |
| By: | Thierry Montalieu (LEO - Laboratoire d'économie d'Orleans - http://www.univ-orleans.fr/DEG/LEO - CNRS : FRE2783 - Université d'Orléans); Thierry Baudassé (LEO - Laboratoire d'économie d'Orleans - http://www.univ-orleans.fr/DEG/LEO - CNRS : FRE2783 - Université d'Orléans) |
| Abstract: | Le "Capital Social" désigne l'aptitude des individus à coopérer et à se coordonner, ainsi que leur habitude de contribuer à l'effort commun, mais aussi, d'une façon plus générale, leur désir d'être ensemble. Cette notion a reçu au cours des dernières années une grande attention de la part des économistes, tant dans le domaine de la Finance que de l'économie du Développement. Nous proposons une présentation de ce concept et une illustration de sa pertinence dans divers domaines de l'analyse économique. |
| Keywords: | Capital social ; finance ; microfinance ; secteur informel ; développement |
| Date: | 2006–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00007798_v1&r=soc |
| By: | Marisa Ratto; Richard Thomas; David Ulph |
| Abstract: | In this paper we focus on the effects of investigations on tax compliance. In a very general model we explain the direct and indirect effects of investigations and analyse taxpayers’ response to an increase in the probability of audit when tax compliance is a social norm. We define the different elements that determine the impact of audits on compliance and show that if tax compliance is a social norm in the relevant community there is an additional effect arising because of social norm considerations. The behavioural response of taxpayers to an increase in the audit rate is stronger. Our Findings help explain seemingly contradictory results that emerge from the empirical evidence. |
| Keywords: | tax evasion, social norm, opportunities to evade, optimal audit rule |
| JEL: | D81 H26 H30 K42 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:05/127&r=soc |
| By: | Topi Miettinen (University College London and University of Helsinki); Panu Poutvaara (University of Helsinki and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | We argue that anti-corruption laws may provide an efficiency rationale for why political parties should meddle in the distribution of political nominations and government contracts. Anticorruption laws forbid trade in spoils that politicians distribute. However, citizens may pay for gaining access to politicians and, thereby, to become potential candidates for nominations. Such rent-seeking results in excessive network formation. Political parties may reduce wasteful network formation, thanks to their ability to enter into exclusive membership contracts. This holds even though anti-corruption laws also bind political parties. |
| Keywords: | political parties, two-sided platforms, rent-seeking, network formation |
| JEL: | D72 D85 L14 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1918&r=soc |
| By: | Andrew Leigh (RSSS, Australian National University); Justin Wolfers (University of Pennsylvania, CEPR, NBER and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | In "Happiness and the Human Development Index: The Paradox of Australia," Blanchflower and Oswald (2005) observe an apparent puzzle: they claim that Australia ranks highly in the Human Development Index (HDI), but relatively poorly in happiness. However, when we compare their happiness data with the HDI, Australia appears happier, not sadder, than its HDI score would predict. This conclusion also holds when we turn to a larger cross-national dataset than the one used by Blanchflower and Oswald, when we analyse life satisfaction in place of happiness, and when we measure development using GDP per capita in place of the HDI. Indeed, in the World Values Survey, only one other country (Iceland) has a significantly higher level of both life satisfaction and happiness than Australia. Our findings accord with numerous cross-national surveys conducted since the 1940s, which have consistently found that Australians report high levels of wellbeing. |
| Keywords: | happiness, life satisfaction, Human Development Index, income, Australia |
| JEL: | I31 O57 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1916&r=soc |
| By: | Carol A. Corrado; Charles R. Hulten; Daniel E. Sichel |
| Abstract: | Published macroeconomic data traditionally exclude most intangible investment from measured GDP. This situation is beginning to change, but our estimates suggest that as much as $800 billion is still excluded from U.S. published data (as of 2003), and that this leads to the exclusion of more than $3 trillion of business intangible capital stock. To assess the importance of this omission, we add capital to the standard sources-of-growth framework used by the BLS, and find that the inclusion of our list of intangible assets makes a significant difference in the observed patterns of U.S. economic growth. The rate of change of output per worker increases more rapidly when intangibles are counted as capital, and capital deepening becomes the unambiguously dominant source of growth in labor productivity. The role of multifactor productivity is correspondingly diminished, and labor's income share is found to have decreased significantly over the last 50 years. |
| JEL: | O47 E22 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11948&r=soc |
| By: | Arora, Seema; Cason, Timothy |
| Abstract: | This research uses neighborhood characteristics (at the zipcode level) to explain changes in toxic releases between 1990 and 1993. It combines the Toxics Release Inventory data with demographic data from the 1990 US Census. We first analyze the location of manufacturing facilities in a particular neighborhood using a sample selection model, and then attribute changes in the level of emissions between 1990 and 1993 to the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the neighborhood in 1990. The results indicate that variables likely to affect the propensity for communities to engage in political action significantly influence environmental performance. Economic characteristics of neighborhoods (such as income levels and unemployment) also affect changes in releases. Release changes in the Southeastern US exhibit a pattern consistent with racial injustice. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-97-12&r=soc |
| By: | Fehr, Ernst; Naef, Michael; Schmidt, Klaus M. |
| Abstract: | Engelmann and Strobel (AER 2004) question the relevance of inequity aversion in simple dictator game experiments claiming that a combination of a preference for efficiency and a Rawlsian motive for helping the least well-off is more important than inequity aversion. We show that these results are partly based on a strong subject pool effect. The participants of the E&S experiments were undergraduate students of economics and business administration who self-selected into their field of study (economics) and learned in the first semester that efficiency is desirable. We show that for non-economists the preference for efficiency is much less pronounced. We also find a non-negligible gender effect indicating that women are more egalitarian than men. However, perhaps surprisingly, the dominance of equality over efficiency is unrelated to political attitudes. |
| Keywords: | inequity aversion; preferences for efficiency; social preferences |
| JEL: | C7 C91 C92 D63 D64 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5368&r=soc |
| By: | Yannis Ioannides; Adriaan Soetevent |
| Keywords: | job search, social networks, arbitrary degree distribution, wage inequality, incidence of unemployment |
| JEL: | D83 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0601&r=soc |
| By: | John B. Davis (Faculty of Economics and Econometrics, University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews three distinct strategies in recent economics for using the concept of social identity in the explanation of individual behavior: Akerlof and Kranton’s neoclassical approach, Sen’s commitment approach, and Kirman et al.’s complexity approach. The primary focus is the multiple selves problem and the difficulties associated with failing to explain social identity and personal identity together. The argument of the paper is that too narrow a scope for reflexivity in individual decision-making renders the problem intractable, but that enlarging this scope makes it possible to explain personal and social identity together in connection with an individual behavior termed comparative value-objective evaluation. The paper concludes with recommendations for treating the individual objective function as a production function. |
| Keywords: | identity; personal identity; reflexivity; individual objective function |
| JEL: | D63 Z13 |
| Date: | 2005–08–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20050078&r=soc |
| By: | Leon Bettendorf (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam); Elbert Dijkgraaf (SEOR-ECRI, and Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | In this paper the relation between religion and income is investigated using a micro-dataset for the Netherlands. Religiosity is measured by religious membership and by participation. Instead of estimating separately a religion and an income equation, joint regression is preferred since this generally yields more efficient estimates. Following the single equation approach, both religious measures are found to decrease significantly income and income is found to affect negatively religion. However, these cross-effects get insignificant once the equations are simultaneously estimated. In contrast, the effects of socio-economic characteristics on religion and income hardly differ between both approaches. |
| Keywords: | Income; Religious Membership; Religious Participation |
| JEL: | Z12 H31 |
| Date: | 2005–11–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20050105&r=soc |
| By: | Nicholas Bardsley (CeDEx, Nottingham School of Economics, University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | Experimental dictator games have been used to explore unselfish behaviour. Evidence is presented here, however, that subjects’ generosity can be reversed by allowing them to take money from a partner. Dictator game giving therefore does not stem from orthodox social preferences. It can be interpreted plausibly as an artefact of experimentation. Alternatively the evaluation of an action depends on the composition of the choice set. Implications of these possibilities are explored for experimental methodology and charitable donations respectively. The artefact interpretation is empirically superior, and implies that researchers should investigate demand characteristics of experimental protocols. |
| Keywords: | altruism, artificiality, experiments, methodology |
| JEL: | C91 C70 D63 D64 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdx:dpaper:2005-10&r=soc |
| By: | Urs Fischbacher; Simon Gächter |
| Abstract: | We provide a direct test of the role of social preferences in voluntary cooperation. We elicit individuals’ cooperation preference in one experiment and make a point prediction about the contribution to a repeated public good. This allows for a novel test as to whether there are "types" of players who behave consistently with their elicited preferences. We find clear-cut evidence for the existence of "types". People who express free rider preferences show the most systematic deviation from the predicted contributions, because they contribute in the first half of the experiment. We also show that the interaction of heterogeneous types explains a large part of the dynamics of free riding. |
| Keywords: | Public goods games, experiments, voluntary contributions, conditional cooperation, free riding |
| JEL: | C91 C72 H41 D64 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:261&r=soc |
| By: | Nicolas Carayol; Pascale Roux |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a spatialized variation of the Connections model of Jackson and Wolinski (1996). Agents benefit from their direct and indirect connections in a communication network. They are arranged on a circle and bear costs for maintaining direct connections which are linearly increasing with geographic distance. In a dynamic setting, this model is shown to generate networks that exhibit the small world properties shared by many real social and economic networks. |
| Keywords: | Strategic Network Formation, Pairwise Stability, Small World, Monte Carlo. |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2006-02&r=soc |
| By: | Helje Kaldaru Author-Name: Eve Parts |
| Abstract: | The concept of social capital as an important determinant of economic development is attracting increasing attention among development economists. The present paper analyses the impact of macro-level social capital on economic development in 34 European countries. Macro-level social capital comprises different aspects of institutional quality and is closely related to the income distribution and social cohesion. We used principal component analysis to group initially selected social determinants of economic development into three components (human and social capital, income equality, and redistribution), which altogether described 64.4% of the variation of the initial variables. Following regression analysis proved that all these components have a positive effect on economic development, measured by human development index. |
| Keywords: | social capital, economic development, sustainability, European economies |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtk:febawb:42&r=soc |
| By: | Drogendijk,Rian (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Managing relations is a complex task for internationalizing firms and their subsidiaries: MNC subsidiaries are not only part of the MNC network but they also develop relations with network actors in their local environment. This paper investigates conceptually how MNC subsidiaries established through generic expansion build relations within the MNC and with external market and non-market actors as they evolve through stages of start-up, growth and maturity. The paper develops propositions, grounded in institutional theory, resource dependency theory and network approaches, on the changing strength and importance of a subsidiary's relations depending on its dependence or interdependence in these relations, with five groups of actors (MNC headquarters, other subsidiaries within the MNC, local business actors, local government and non-government organizations). The paper ends with drawing directions for future work that will enhance understanding of the dynamics of relationship management in MNC subsidiaries. |
| Keywords: | MNC management;HQ-subsidiary relations;networks;institutional theory; multinational companies |
| JEL: | F23 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2005128&r=soc |
| By: | M. Ali Choudhary (University of Surrey) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a model in which firms invest on their customer-networks to maintain current and future profits. The model is used to illustrate how the costs of maintaining networks and uncertainties about the customer-networks reduce the importance of making investments on the customer-based. Empirical evidence provides support for the theory. |
| Keywords: | Network costs, Uncertainty, Pricing |
| JEL: | D43 D80 L11 |
| Date: | 2004–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sur:surrec:0404&r=soc |
| By: | KLAUS ABBINK (School of Economics, University of Nottingham); MOLLER, Lars Christian (School of Economics, University of Nottingham); SARAH O’HARA (School of Geography, University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | With the disintegration of the USSR a conflict arose between Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan over the Syr Darya river. Upstream Kyrgyzstan operates the Toktogul reservoir which generates hydropower demanded mainly in winter for heating. Downstream Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan need irrigation water in summer, primarily to grow cotton. Regional agreements obliging Kyrgyzstan to high summer discharges in exchange for fossil fuel transfers in winter have generally been unsuccessful, notably due to lack of trust between the parties. Striving for self-sufficiency in irrigation water, Uzbekistan initiated new reservoir construction. This paper examines their economic impact. We report a laboratory experiment modelling the Syr Darya river scenario as a multi-round three-player trust game with non-binding contracts. Payoff schemes are estimated using real-life data. While basinwide efficiency maximisation requires regional cooperation, our results demonstrate that cooperation in the laboratory is hard to achieve. Uzbek reservoirs improve the likelihood of cooperation only weakly and their positive economic impact is limited to low-water years. |
| Keywords: | Central Asia, common-pool resources, conflict, dams, hydropower, irrigation, experimental economics, regional public goods, transboundary rivers, Syr Darya, trust games, water |
| JEL: | C72 C92 O53 Q25 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdx:dpaper:2005-14&r=soc |
| By: | Iris Bohnet (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University); Benedikt Herrmann (School of Economics, University of Nottingham); Richard Zeckhauser (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | This paper employs experiments to determine how effectively arrangements decreasing the expected cost of trust betrayal foster trust in three Gulf countries (Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates), and two Western countries (Switzerland and the United States). Our basic instrument elicits subjects’ minimum acceptable probabilities for trustworthiness that would make them just willing to trust. Trust proves more elastic to the likelihood and the cost of betrayal in the West than in the Gulf. Risk aversion and betrayal aversion contribute to this difference. The disparities between the West and the Gulf are driven more by men than by women. |
| Keywords: | Trust, betrayal aversion, gender differences, in-group preferences |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdx:dpaper:2005-15&r=soc |
| By: | Ebonya Washington |
| Abstract: | Economists have long concerned themselves with environmental influences, such as neighborhood, peers and family on individuals' beliefs and behaviors. However, the impact of children on parents' behavior has been little studied. Parenting daughters, psychologists have shown, increases feminist sympathies. I test the hypothesis that children, much like neighbors or peers, can influence adult behavior. I demonstrate that the propensity to vote liberally on reproductive rights is significantly increasing in a congress person's proportion of daughters. The result demonstrates not only the relevance of child to parent behavioral influence, but also the importance of personal ideology in a legislator's voting decisions as it is not explained away by voter preferences. |
| JEL: | H0 J16 D72 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11924&r=soc |
| By: | Frank H. Page, Jr. (Department of Finance, University of Alabama); Myrna H. Wooders (Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University) |
| Abstract: | Modeling club structures as bipartite networks, we formulate the problem of club formation as a game of network formation and identify those club networks that are stable if agents behave farsightedly in choosing their club memberships. Using the farsighted core as our stability notion, we show that if agents' payoffs are single-peaked and agents agree on the peak club size (i.e., agents agree on the optimal club size) and if there sufficiently many clubs to allow for the partition of agents into clubs of optimal size, then a necessary and sufficient condition for the farsighted core to be nonempty is that agents who end up in smaller-than-optimal size clubs have no incentive to switch their memberships to already existing clubs of optimal size. In contrast, we show via an example that if there are too few clubs relative to the number of agents, then the farsighted core may be empty. Contrary to prior results in the literature involving myopic behavior, our example shows that overcrowding and farsightedness lead to instability in club formation. |
| Keywords: | Club formation, club networks, noncooperative games, farsighted stability, farsighted core, path dominance |
| JEL: | D85 D71 C72 C73 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:van:wpaper:0529&r=soc |
| By: | David Bell (University of Stirling); David G. Blanchflower (Dartmouth College, NBER and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | On almost all measures of physical health, Scots fare worse than residents of any other region of the UK and often worse than the rest of Europe. Deaths from chronic liver disease and lung cancer are particularly prevalent in Scotland. The self-assessed wellbeing of Scots is lower than that of the English or Welsh, even after taking into account any differences in characteristics. Scots also suffer from higher levels of self-assessed depression or phobia, accidental death and suicide than those in other parts of Great Britain. This result is particularly driven by outcomes in Strathclyde and is consistent with the high scores for other measures of social deprivation in this area. On average, indicators of social capital in Scotland are no worse than in England or Wales. Detailed analysis within Scotland, however, shows that social capital indicators for the Strathclyde area are relatively low. We argue that these problems need to be directly targeted as they seem unlikely to be fixed by more indirect policies aimed at raising economic growth. |
| Keywords: | wellbeing, happiness, suicide, depression |
| JEL: | J4 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1909&r=soc |