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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
| By: | Luigi Guiso; Paola Sapienza; Luigi Zingales |
| Abstract: | To explain the extremely long-term persistence (more than 500 years) of positive historical experiences of cooperation (Putnam, 1993), we model the intergenerational transmission of priors about the trustworthiness of others. We show that this transmission tends to be biased toward excessively conservative priors. As a result, societies can be trapped in a low-trust equilibrium. In this context, a temporary shock to the return to trusting can have a permanent effect on the level of trust. We validate the model by testing its predictions on the World Values Survey data and the German Socio Economic Panel. We also present some anecdotal evidence that these priors are reflected in the novels originated in different parts of the country. |
| Keywords: | social capital, culture, trust |
| JEL: | A13 N00 O1 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2007/57&r=soc |
| By: | Lindbeck, Assar (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Palme, Mårten (Stockholm University); Persson, Mats (Institute for International Economic Studies) |
| Abstract: | Does the average level of sickness absence in a neighborhood affect individual sickness absence through social interaction on the neighborhood level? To answer this question, we consider evidence of local benefit-dependency cultures. Well-known methodological problems in this type of analysis include avoiding the so-called reflection problem and disentangling the causal effects of group behavior on individual behavior from the effects of individual sorting on neighborhoods. Based on data from Sweden, we adopt several different approaches to deal with these problems. The results are robust in the sense that regardless of approach and identifying assumptions, we obtain statistically significant estimates indicating group effects. |
| Keywords: | Sick-pay Insurance; Work Absence; Moral Hazard; Social Norms |
| JEL: | H56 I38 J22 Z13 |
| Date: | 2007–12–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0725&r=soc |
| By: | John P. Haisken-DeNew; Mathias Sinning |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at providing empirical evidence on social exclusion of immigrants in Germany. We demonstrate that when using a conventional definition of the social inclusion index typically applied in the literature, immigrants appear to experience a significant degree of social deprivation and exclusion, confirming much of the economic literature examining the economic assimilation of immigrants in Germany. We propose a weighting scheme that weights components of social inclusion by their subjective contribution to an overall measure of life satisfaction.Using this weighting scheme to calculate an index of social inclusion, we find that immigrants are in fact as "included" as Germans. This result is driven strongly by the disproportionately positive socio-demographic characteristics that immigrants possess as measured by the contribution to their life satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | Social Exclusion, International Migration, Integration |
| JEL: | F22 I31 Z13 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp63&r=soc |
| By: | Neel Rao; Markus M. Möbius; Tanya Rosenblat |
| Abstract: | We combine information on social networks with medical records and survey data in order to examine how friends affect one’s decision to get vaccinated against the flu. The random assignment of undergraduates to residential halls at a large private university allows us to estimate how peer effects influence health beliefs and vaccination choices. Our results indicate that social exposure to medical information raises people’s perceptions of the benefits of immunization. The average student’s belief about the vaccine’s health value increases by $5.00 when an additional 10 percent of her friends are assigned to residences that host inoculation clinics. Among students with no recent flu experience, a 10 percent rise in the number of friends living in residences with clinics raises cumulative valuations of the vaccine by $10.92, with 85 percent of this increase attributable to heightened perceptions about the medical benefits of immunization. We also find evidence of positive peer effects on individuals’ vaccination decisions. A student becomes up to 8.3 percentage points more likely to get immunized if an additional 10 percent of her friends receive flu shots. Furthermore, the excess clustering of friends at inoculation clinics suggests that students coordinate their vaccination decisions with their friends. |
| Keywords: | Stochastic analysis ; Human behavior ; Altruism ; Medical care |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:07-12&r=soc |
| By: | Manuel Portugal Ferreira (Instituto Politécnico de Leiria); Fernando Ribeiro Serra (Unisul Business School); João Carvalho Santos (Instituto Politécnico de Leiria) |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT This paper investigates theoretically the importance and impact of the international entrepreneurial firms? (IEFs) social networks on selected firms? strategies. We focus specifically on some core attributes of IEFs and the impact of social networks on such strategies as the choice of the foreign markets to operate and the foreign entry modes. The social networks are a major driver of the internationalization from inception and help in overcoming a variety of physical and social resource limitations as well as transactional hazards. We conclude that it is likely that both some fundamental characteristics of the IEFs and those of the foreign markets entered account for these firms reliance on their social networks. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, international entrepreneurial firms, social networks, internationalization |
| JEL: | M1 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pil:wpaper:7&r=soc |
| By: | Alois Stutzer; Lorenz Goette; Michael Zehnder |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we propose a decision framework where people are individually asked to either actively consent to or dissent from some pro-social behavior. We hypothesize that confronting individuals with the choice of whether to engage in a specific pro-social behavior contributes to the formation of issue-specific altruistic preferences, while simultaneously involving a commitment. The hypothesis is tested in a large-scale field experiment on blood donations. We find that this “active-decision” intervention substantially increases the actual donation behavior of people who had not fully formed preferences beforehand. |
| Keywords: | Human behavior ; Altruism |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbwp:07-13&r=soc |
| By: | Elizabeth Levy Paluck (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Can the media reduce intergroup prejudice and conflict? Despite the high stakes of this question, understanding of the mass media’s role in shaping prejudiced beliefs, norms, and behaviors is very limited. A yearlong field experiment in Rwanda tested the impact of a radio soap opera about two Rwandan communities in conflict, which featured messages about reducing intergroup prejudice, violence, and trauma. Compared to communities who listened to a control radio soap opera, listeners’ perceptions of social norms and their behaviors changed concerning some of the most critical issues for Rwanda’s post conflict society, namely intermarriage, open dissent, trust, empathy, cooperation and discussion of personal trauma. However, the radio program did little to influence listeners’ personal beliefs. Group discussion was a notable feature of the listening experience. Taken together, the results suggest that radio can communicate social norms and influence behaviors that contribute to intergroup tolerance and reconciliation. |
| Keywords: | Education-entertainment, prejudice reduction, conflict reduction, trauma, field experiment, mass media, radio, social norms |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:34&r=soc |
| By: | Timothy J. Halliday (Department of Economics & John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa); Sally Kwak (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa) |
| Abstract: | The potential influence of peers and social networks on individual outcomes is important to a variety of educational policy debates including school vouchers, special education, middle school grade configurations and tracking. Researchers usually address the identification problems associated with credibly estimating peer effects in these settings but often do not account for ad-hoc definitions of peer-groups. In this paper, we use extensive information on peer groups to demonstrate that accurate definitions of the peer network seriously impact estimation of peer effects. We estimate the effect of peers’ smoking, drinking, sexual behavior and educational achievement on a teen’s propensity to engage in like-minded behavior and address the major identification problems that plague estimation of these effects. |
| Keywords: | Peer Effects, Education, Adolescent Health |
| JEL: | I12 I20 |
| Date: | 2007–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:200730&r=soc |
| By: | Gundi Knies; Simon Burgess; Carol Propper |
| Abstract: | We test empirically whether people’s life satisfaction depends on their relative income position in the neighbourhood, drawing on a unique dataset, the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) matched with micro-marketing indicators of population characteristics. Relative deprivation theory suggests that individuals are happier the better their relative income position in the neighbourhood is. To test this theory we estimate micro-economic happiness models for the years 1994 and 1999 with controls for own income and for neighbourhood income at the zip-code level (roughly 9,000 people). There exist no negative and no statistically significant associations between neighbourhood income and life satisfaction, which refutes relative deprivation theory. If anything, we find positive associations between neighbourhood income and happiness in all cross-sectional models and this is robust to a number of robustness tests, including adding in more controls for neighbourhood quality, changing the outcome variable, and interacting neighbourhood income with indicators that proxy the extent to which individuals may be assumed to interact with their neighbours. We argue that the scale at which we measure neighbourhood characteristics may be too large still to identify the comparison effect sought after. |
| Keywords: | Life satisfaction, neighbourhood effects, comparison income, reference group |
| JEL: | I31 C23 Z1 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp24&r=soc |
| By: | Claudia Senik; Thierry Verdier |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the interaction between labor market integration, the evolution of "work values" and entrepreneurial capital inside minority communities. A simple model of labor market segmentation with ethnic capital and endogenous transmission of cultural values inside minority groups is presented. It emphasizes the role of entrepreneurial capital as an important driver of labor market integration and as a promoter of meritocratic work values inside the community. Using a new French survey rich in attitudinal variables, it then proposes an empirical illustration, focusing on the dissimilarity between the labor market integration of South European versus North African second generation immigrants in France. It shows that the contrasted economic and cultural integration of these minorities can be explained away by their different levels of entrepreneurial capital. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2007-37&r=soc |
| By: | Marcello Basili; Maurizio Franzini |
| Abstract: | Cooperation occurs even where it is not predicted by economic theory, owing to what is widely recognized as too narrow a conception of self-interest. In particular, relying on plenty of experimental evidence, it has been maintained that agents adopt such a strong reciprocity rules in their behavior as make it worthwhile to punish those who defect or do not act fairly, costly though as this may be. We propose to lay the analytical foundation of such behavior – and more generally to cooperation-proneness – by considering self-esteem. Agents may include self-esteem in their utility (or goal) function and actually produce or destroy self-esteem through their behavior. This amounts to introducing a moral system in individual behavior in such a way as to make it amenable to rational maximization. We also show how the impact of self-esteem on the best contract in Principal-Agents situations and how such impact differs in Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection situations. |
| Keywords: | self-esteem, reciprocity, motivation, incentive, agency. |
| JEL: | J41 D64 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:depfid:007&r=soc |
| By: | Amelie Constant; Klaus F. Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | The paper advocates for a new measure of the ethnic identity of migrants, models its determinants and explores its explanatory power for various types of their economic performance. The ethnosizer, a measure of the intensity of a person's ethnic identity, is constructed from information on the following elements: language, culture, societal interaction, history of migration, and ethnic self-identification. A two-dimensional concept of the ethnosizer classifies migrants into four states: integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. The ethnosizer largely depends on pre-migration characteristics. Empirical evidence studying economic behavior like work participation, earnings and housing decisions demonstrates the significant relevance of ethnic identity for economic outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Ethnicity, ethnic identity, acculturation, migrant assimilation, migrant integration,work, cultural economics |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J16 Z10 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp47&r=soc |
| By: | Steven Lim (University of Waikato); Michael P. Cameron (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | Many business managers demonstrate a reluctance to engage fully with corporate social responsibility (CSR). They often perceive CSR as a cost and their CSR activities tend to be piecemeal and defensive. Such suboptimal outcomes can stem from a failure to appreciate a firm’s social assets. We suggest that firms have the potential to engage much more fully with CSR, in a manner that is consistent with a profit-maximizing approach to business. But managers need help in both gaining an awareness of the social contributions that they can make and in navigating their way through CSR issues. To this end, we outline a program of four-Ds, namely dialogue, data, design and delivery, to assist managers integrate CSR issues into their overall business strategies. Our case study of the garment industry in Thailand illustrates how CSR issues can be leveraged to increase worker productivity and deliver positive social and community health outcomes, despite operating in an area that is often subject to criticism. |
| Keywords: | corporate social responsibility; social contracts; rural development; Thailand |
| JEL: | I18 I38 L31 M14 |
| Date: | 2007–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:07/25&r=soc |
| By: | Alfonso Miranda (Keele University and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether family and community migration experience affect the probability of high school graduation in Mexico once unobserved heterogeneity is accounted for. Bivariate random effects dynamic probit models for cluster data are estimated to control for the endogeneity of education and migrant network variables. Correlation of unobservables across migration and education decisions as well as within groups of individuals such as the family are explicitly controlled for. Results show that migrant networks reduce the likelihood of high school graduation. Negative migrant selection is detected at the individual level while positive migrant selection is found at the family level. |
| Keywords: | migration, education, migrant selection, dynamic bivariate probit |
| JEL: | F22 I21 J61 C35 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3204&r=soc |
| By: | Anita I. Drever |
| Abstract: | In contrast to most research on the effects on residents of living in an ethnic neighborhood, this paper explores how living within an ethnic neighborhood affects members of the dominant ethnic group - in this case Germans - rather than the minorities that define it. The results indicate that Germans living within ethnic neighborhoods are less well off financially than their peers in other parts of the city, and are more likely to be living in large buildings in need of repair. The analysis did not however suggest that Germans living in ethnic neighborhoods have fewer social contacts, or that they are more likely to be unemployed. Indeed, Germans living within ethnic neighborhoods reported levels of satisfaction with their housing and standard of living equal to Germans elsewhere. These results would seem to paint a rosy picture of the lives of German residents of ethnic neighborhoods, were it not for a notable absence of school-aged German children within these spaces. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp48&r=soc |
| By: | Sergei Guriev (New Economic School (NES), Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR), Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)); Ekaterina Zhuravskaya (New Economic School (NES), Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR), Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)) |
| Abstract: | Despite the strong growth performance in transition countries in the last decade, residents of transition countries report abnormally low levels of life satisfaction. Using data from multiple sources including a recent survey in 28 post-communist countries, we study various explanations of this phenomenon. We find that deterioration in public goods provision, an increase in macroeconomic volatility, and a mismatch of human capital explain a great deal of the difference in life satisfaction between transition countries and other countries with similar income. The rest of the gap is explained by the difference in the quality of the samples. As in other countries, life satisfaction in transition is strongly related to income; but due to a higher non-response of highincome individuals in transition countries, the effect of GDP growth on the increase in life satisfaction estimated using survey data is biased downwards. The evidence suggests that if the region keeps growing at current rates, the life satisfaction in transition countries will catch up with the “normal” level in the near future. |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfr:cefirw:w0111&r=soc |