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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
| By: | Moscone, Francesco; Tosetti, Elisa; Vittadini, Giorgio |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the influence of social interaction on patients' hospital choice and its relationship with quality delivered by hospitals, using Italian data. We explore the impact on individual choices of a set of variables such as travel distance, individual- and hospital-specific characteristics, as well as a variable capturing the effect of the neighbourhood. The richness of our data allows us to disentangle contextual effects from the influence of information sharing on patients' hospital choices. We then use this framework to assess how such interaction is related to clinical hospital quality. Results show that network effect plays an important role in hospital choices, although it is less relevant for larger hospitals. Another empirical finding is the existence of a negative relationship between the degree of interaction among individuals and the quality delivered by hospitals. The absence of a source of information on the quality of hospitals accessible to all individuals, such as guidelines or star ratings, exacerbates the importance of information gathered locally in hospital choices, which may result in a lower degree of competition among hospitals and lower quality. |
| Keywords: | health care; social interaction; quality |
| JEL: | I11 H00 C21 |
| Date: | 2009–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17783&r=soc |
| By: | Giacomo degli Antoni (University of Milan - Bicocca) |
| Abstract: | The present paper draws on an original dataset collected by the author to investigate if: i)the relational network and the human capital developed by unemployed volunteers through their associational membership are useful in finding a job; ii)the likelihood to get a job is higher for volunteers who take part in activities capable of increasing social networks and human capital. Data show that a considerable percentage of volunteers (24%) who were out of work when they joined their association obtained a job thanks to their associational participation. In particular, personal declarations of unemployed respondents reveal that 12% of them found a job thanks to the skills developed by working in the association, 10% thanks to information received by people met through the association and 2% for other reasons concerning the associational membership. Moreover, the econometric analysis shows that some activities related to the creation of social network (the frequency of participation in informal meetings and work groups) and human capital (the attendance at training courses) positively and significantly affect the probability to get a job if unemployed. |
| Keywords: | Voluntary Associations; Job Opportunities; Social Network; Human Capital |
| JEL: | L31 A14 J64 D85 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ent:wpaper:wp14&r=soc |
| By: | Alberto F. Alesina; Paola Giuliano |
| Abstract: | We establish an inverse relationship between family ties and political participation, such that the more individuals rely on the family as a provider of services, insurance, transfer of resources, the lower is one’s civic engagment and political participation. We also show that strong family ties appear to be a substitute for generalized trust, rather than a complement to it. These three constructs-civic engagement, political participation, and trust- are part of what is known as social capital; therefore, in this paper, we contribute to the investigation of the origin and evolution of social capital. We establish these results using within-country evidence and looking at the behavior of immigrants from various countries in 32 different destination places. |
| JEL: | P16 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15415&r=soc |
| By: | Paolo Pinotti (Bank of Italy JEL classification:L51, Z10, D02, K42) |
| Abstract: | Cultural traits shape both the scope and the consequences of government intervention. Failing to account for cultural differences may therefore bias the estimated effects of regulation. This paper investigates the direction and the magnitude of this bias, from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. It presents a simple model in which agents differ in terms of trust and trustworthiness, and average trust predicts average trustworthiness across countries. Entrepreneurial activity by the untrustworthy imposes negative externalities on the whole economy and burdensome entry regulations may lower these externalities at the cost of limiting economic activity by all agents. The model delivers two main predictions: within each country, preferences for regulations depend negatively on individual trust; across countries, lower trustworthiness drives higher levels of unofficial activity, negative externalities and government regulation, thus inducing a positive spurious correlation between all these variables. Evidence from individual level and cross-country data is consistent with these implications of the model. In particular, it suggests that a large part of the previously estimated negative effects of regulation can be attributed to omitted variation in cultural traits. |
| Keywords: | trust, regulations, unofficial economy, externalities |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_721_09&r=soc |
| By: | Tom Broekel; Ron Boschma |
| Abstract: | The importance of geographical proximity for interaction and knowledge sharing has been discussed extensively in economic geography in recent years. There is increasing consensus that it is just one out of many types of proximities that might be relevant. We argue that proximity may be a crucial driver for agents to connect and exchange knowledge, but too much proximity between these agents on any of the dimensions might harm their innovative performance at the same time. In a study on knowledge networks in the Dutch aviation industry, we test this so-called proximity paradox empirically. We find evidence that the proximity paradox holds to some degree. Our study clearly shows that cognitive, social and geographical proximity are crucial for explaining the knowledge network of the Dutch aviation industry. But while it takes cognitive, social and geographical proximity to exchange knowledge, we found evidence that proximity lowers firms’ innovative performance, but only in the cognitive dimension. |
| Keywords: | proximity, paradox, social network analysis, knowledge networks, aviation |
| JEL: | R11 R12 O32 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0915&r=soc |
| By: | Kaushik Basu |
| Abstract: | The paper argues that economism and, in particular, the individual drive to maximize utility and amass profit are not enough to ensure the efficient functioning of an economy; and that even for elementary economic activities, such as trade, exchange and contracting to occur smoothly, it is essential that human beings be endowed with appropriate social norms, such as a critical level of trustworthiness. This, in turn, implies that an economy’s development can depend significantly on whether the citizen is endowed with the relevant norms. Where these norms come from and how they gather stability remain open questions, though we can get some important insights from theories of evolutionary processes. |
| Keywords: | ecomism, economic rationality, profit, elementary economic, economy development, theories, economics, evolutionary processes trade, exchange, utility, human beings, rationality, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2240&r=soc |
| By: | David A. Savage; Benno Torgler |
| Abstract: | There is a notable shortage of empirical research directed at measuring the magnitude and direction of stress effects on performance in a controlled environment. One reason for this is the inherent difficulties in identifying and isolating direct performance measures for individuals. Additionally most traditional work environments contain a multitude of exogenous factors impacting individual performance, but controlling for all such factors is generally unfeasible (omitted variable bias). Moreover, instead of asking individuals about their self-reported stress levels we observe workers' behavior in situations that can be classified as stressful. For this reason we have stepped outside the traditional workplace in an attempt to gain greater controllability of these factors using the sports environment as our experimental space. We empirically investigate the relationship between stress and performance, in an extreme pressure situation (football penalty kicks) in a winner take all sporting environment (FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Cup competitions). Specifically, we examine all the penalty shootouts between 1976 and 2008 covering in total 16 events. The results indicate that extreme stressors can have a positive or negative impact on individuals' performance. On the other hand, more commonly experienced stressors do not affect professionals' performances. |
| Keywords: | performance; stressors; sport; behavioral economics; work-related stress |
| JEL: | D80 D81 J81 Z13 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2009-22&r=soc |
| By: | Rune Dahl Fitjar (International Research Institute of Stavanger); Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (IMDEA Ciencias Sociales) |
| Abstract: | How do peripheral and relatively isolated regions innovate? Recent research has tended to stress the importance of agglomeration economies and geographical proximity as key motors of innovation. According to this research, large core areas have significant advantages with respect to peripheral areas in innovation potential. Yet, despite these trends, some remote areas of the periphery are remarkably innovative even in the absence of critical innovation masses. In this paper we examine one such case – the region of Southwest Norway – which has managed to remain innovative and dynamic, despite having a below average investment in R&D in the Norwegian context. The results of the paper highlight that innovation in Southwest Norway does not stem from agglomeration and physical proximity, but from other types of proximity, such as cognitive and organizational proximity, rooted in soft institutional arrangements. This suggests that the formation of regional hubs with strong connections to international innovative networks may be a way to overcome peripherality in order to innovate. |
| Keywords: | innovation; institutions; distance; trust; open-mindedness; periphery; Norway |
| Date: | 2009–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2009-13&r=soc |
| By: | Pierre-Alexandre Balland |
| Abstract: | Increasing attention had been given recently to understand how networks affect organizational performance in innovation studies. Surprisingly, underlying mechanisms of their evolution have been more neglected, and still remain unclear. This lack of interest is denounced today by recent papers which claim that it is a crucial issue for economic geography. Especially the influence of different forms of proximity on the network’s changes needs to be clarified. This paper contributes to this ongoing debate by determining empirically how organizations choose their partners given to their geographical, organizational, institutional, cognitive and social proximity. The relational database is constructed from publicly available information on the R&D collaborative projects of the 6th European Union Framework Program within the navigation by satellite industry (GNSS). Patterns of evolution of the GNSS collaboration network are determined according to a longitudinal study of the relational changes occurred between four consecutive years, from 2004 to 2007. Empirical results show that geographical, organizational and institutional proximity favour collaboration. Inversely, organizations prefer to avoid partnerships when they share a cognitive proximity (same knowledge bases). The last result demonstrates that the kind of project studied does not create a sufficient level of social proximity to stimulate collaboration. |
| Keywords: | proximity, collaboration networks, innovation, network longitudinal analysis, R&D collaborative projects, SIENA |
| JEL: | O32 R12 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0914&r=soc |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Böhlmark, Anders (Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University); Nordström Skans, Oskar (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | The paper studies childhood migrants and examines how age at migration affects their ensuing integration at the residential market, the labor market, and the marriage market. We use population-wide Swedish data and compare outcomes as adults among siblings arriving at different ages in order to ensure that the results can be given a causal inter-pretation. The results show that the children who arrived at a higher age had substan-tially lower shares of natives among their neighbors, coworkers and spouses as adults. The effects are mostly driven by higher exposure to immigrants of similar ethnic origin, in particular at the marriage market. There are also non-trivial effects on employment, but a more limited impact on education and wages. We also analyze children of migrants and show that parents’ time in the host country before child birth matters, which implies that the outcomes of the social integra¬tion process are inherited. Inherited integration has a particularly strong impact on the marriage patterns of females. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; integration; segregation; age at migration; siblings |
| JEL: | J01 J12 J13 J15 |
| Date: | 2009–09–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2009_021&r=soc |