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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
| By: | Yamamura, Eiji |
| Abstract: | This paper uses individual data from Japan to explore how the circumstances of where a person resides are related to the degree of their investment in social capital. Controlling for unobserved area-specific fixed effects and various individual characteristics, I found; (1) Not only that homeownership and length of residence are positively related to investment in social capital, but also that rates of homeownership and long-time residency in a locality increase an individual’s investments in social capital. (2) The effects of local neighborhood homeownership and local length of residence are distinctly larger than those of an individual’s homeownership or length of residence. |
| Keywords: | Social Capital; homeownership; length of residence |
| JEL: | D71 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2010–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:24255&r=soc |
| By: | Arthur Grimes (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); Matthew Roskruge; Philip McCann (Department of Economics, University of Waikato and Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen); Jacques Poot (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we link unique data on local social infrastructure expenditure with micro-level individual survey data of self-reported social capital measures of trust and participation in community activities. We use both probit and tobit models to estimate the impact of social infrastructure expenditure on social capital formation. Our results imply that the links between social capital, demographic characteristics, human capital, geography and public social infrastructure investment are rather more subtle and complex than much of the literature implies. While we find evidence in support of many of the hypothesized relationships discussed in the social capital literature, our results also suggest that the impact of public social infrastructure investment is affected by both selection effects and free rider processes. |
| Keywords: | Social capital, trust, participation, public infrastructure, demography, geography |
| JEL: | D71 J18 O18 R23 R51 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:10_03&r=soc |
| By: | Alpízar, Francisco (Environment for Development Center for Central America, CATIE, Turrialba, Costa Rica); Martinsson, Peter (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | Using a natural field experiment in a recreational site, a public good almost fully dependent on voluntary donations, we explored the crowding-out effect of gift rewards. First, we investigated whether receiving a map in appreciation of a donation crowded out prosocial behavior and found no significant effect of giving the map. Second, we explored the effect of adding the map to a treatment designed to increase donations. Interestingly, when the gift was combined with our attempt to trigger reputational and self image motives, the probability of donating decreased significantly, compared to the social reference treatment alone.<p> |
| Keywords: | Crowding-out; donation; natural field experiment; reciprocity |
| JEL: | C93 D10 D60 Q50 |
| Date: | 2010–08–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0460&r=soc |
| By: | James C. Cox; Daniel T. Hall |
| Abstract: | Is mutually beneficial cooperation in trust games more prevalent with private property or common property? Does the strength of property right entitlement affect the answer? Cox, Ostrom, Walker, et al. [1] report little difference between cooperation in private and common property trust games. We assign stronger property right entitlements by requiring subjects to meet a performance quota in a real effort task to earn their endowments. We find that cooperation is lower in common property trust games than in private property trust games, which is an idiosyncratic prediction of revealed altruism theory [2]. |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exc:wpaper:2010-07&r=soc |
| By: | Breitmoser, Yves |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes econometric models of altruistic giving in dictator and public goods games. Using existing data sets, I evaluate internal and external validity of "atheoretic" regression models as well as structural models of random behavior, random coefficients, and random utility, controlling for subject heterogeneity by finite mixture modeling. In dictator games, atheoretic regression lacks external validity, while random coefficient models and random utility models offer high degrees of both internal and external validity. In public goods games, regression works comparably well, being bettered only by random utility models. Overall, the ordered GEV model of random utility is most appropriate to describe choices in the considered games. |
| Keywords: | structural modeling; altruism; dictator game; public goods; ordered choice sets |
| JEL: | C50 C44 D64 C72 |
| Date: | 2010–08–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:24262&r=soc |
| By: | VALENTOVA Marie; BERZOSA Guayarmina |
| Abstract: | According to the latest official statistics, the number of immigrants in Luxembourg is approaching half the population. This demographic change raises questions concerning social inclusion, social cohesion, and intergroup conflicts. The present paper contributes to this discussion by analyzing attitudes toward immigrants and their determinants. Controlling for key socio-demographic and economic individual characteristics, we focus specifically on examining how the intensity of core contacts between nationals and inhabitants with migratory background affects attitudes toward immigrants among three groups of Luxembourg residents: natives, first-generation immigrants, and second-generation immigrants. The European Values Study data of 2008 was used in the paper. The results indicate that attitudes toward immigrants depend significantly on the origins of the residents of Luxembourg. Nationals adopt the most negative stance toward immigrants; they are followed by second-generation and first-generation immigrants. Attitudes of second-generation immigrants are closer to those of the native population than to those of first-generation immigrants, which confirms the assimilation hypotheses. Core contacts appear to play the most important role in the case of first-generation immigrants. The more connected the first-generation migrant to the native population, the more negative his/her opinion of immigrants. |
| Keywords: | attitudes toward immigrants; contact theory; migratory background; EVS |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2010-20&r=soc |
| By: | Martin Binder; Alex Coad |
| Abstract: | Standard regression techniques are only able to give an incomplete picture of the relationship between subjective well-being and its determinants since the very idea of conventional estimators such as OLS is the averaging out over the whole distribution: studies based on such regression techniques thus are implicitly only interested in Average Joe's happiness. Using cross-sectional data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) for the year 2006, we apply quantile regressions to analyze effects of a set of explanatory variables on different quantiles of the happiness distribution and compare these results with an ordinary least squares regression. We also analyze some reversed relationships, where happiness enters the regression equation as an explanatory variable (e.g., the effects of happiness on individual's financial success). Among our results we observe a decreasing importance of income, health status and social factors with increasing quantiles of happiness. Another finding is that education has a positive association with happiness at the lower quantiles but a negative association at the upper quantiles. |
| Keywords: | quantile regressions, subjective well-being, happiness, life satisfaction, mental well-being, BHPS Length 32 pages |
| JEL: | C31 I20 I31 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2010-10&r=soc |