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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
| By: | Bryony Reich (Department of Economics, University of Cambridge) |
| Abstract: | I develop a framework to explain why identity divides some communities and not others. An identity group is defined as a group of individuals with the same `culture'. A community is divided when different identities are socially segregated; a community is integrated when there is no social segregation between different identities. I find three possible outcomes for a community: assimilation, where groups socially integrate and one group conforms to the culture of another; non-assimilative integration, where groups integrate but individuals retain their own identity; and segregation, where groups socially segregate and retain their own culture. I find that certain community environments encourage segregation: (i) communities with similar sized identity groups; (ii) larger communities; (iii) communities with greater cultural distance between identities. Further, when segregation occurs, the cultural divide between the two groups can increase endogenously beyond ex-ante differences. |
| Keywords: | identity, culture, segregation, immigration, immigrants, networks, network formation, coordination, stochastic stability. |
| JEL: | J15 D85 D74 A14 C73 H00 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1010&r=soc |
| By: | Alberto Bisin (New York University, Department of Economics; and NBER); Eleonora Patacchini (Universita’ di Roma "La Sapienza," CEPR, and IZA); Thierry Verdier (Paris School of Economics and CEPR); Yves Zenou (Stockholm University, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, CEPR, and CREAM) |
| Abstract: | We propose a theoretical framework to study the determinants of ethnic and religious identity along two distinct motivational processes which have been proposed in the social sciences: cultural conformity and cultural distinction. Under cultural conformity, ethnic identity is reduced by neighborhood integration, which weakens group loyalties and prejudices. On the contrary, under cultural distinction, ethnic minorities are more motivated in retaining their own distinctive cultural heritage the more integrated are the neighborhoods where they reside and work. Data on ethnic preferences and attitudes provided by the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities in the UK enables us to test the relative significance of these two identity processes. We find evidence consistent with intense ethnic and religious identity mostly formed as a cultural distinction mechanism. Consistently, we document that ethnic identities are more intense in mixed than in segregated neighborhoods. |
| Keywords: | Ethnicity, identity, intermarriage, cultural transmission. |
| JEL: | A14 J15 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:201025&r=soc |
| By: | Keld Laursen; Francesca Masciarelli; Toke Reichstein |
| Abstract: | External knowledge acquisition represents a precondition for firms’ competitive advantage. However, young firms find it particularly difficult to gain access to external sources of knowledge: young firms suffer from a liability of newness by exhibiting significantly lower propensities to invest in external R&D than their older counterparts. We explore the role of geographically bound social capital in moderating this liability. By employing a Nested Logit approach, our findings show that geographically bound social capital moderates the liability of newness related to R&D acquisition, suggesting that the liability exists only in regions associated with low levels of social capital. |
| Keywords: | Research and development; social capital; liability of newness; geography |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:10-25&r=soc |
| By: | Ilja Neustadt (Institute for Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN), RWTH Aachen University) |
| Abstract: | Due to the mixed empirical evidence bearing on the economic determinants, beliefs have been at the center of attention of research into preferences for income redistribution. We elicit preferences for income redistribution through a Discrete Choice Experiment performed in 2008 in Switzerland and relate them to several behavioral determinants, in particular to religious beliefs. Estimated marginal willingness to pay (WTP) is positive among those who do not belong to a religious denomination, and negative otherwise. However, the marginal WTP is shown to increase with a higher degree of religiosity. Moreover, those who state that luck or connections play a crucial role in determining economic success exhibit significantly higher WTP values than those who deem e?ort to be decisive. |
| Keywords: | Income redistribution, beliefs, religiosity, welfare state, preferences, willingness to pay, discrete choice experiments |
| JEL: | C35 C93 D63 H29 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:soz:wpaper:1009&r=soc |
| By: | Costa, Jacopo; Ricciuti, Roberto |
| Abstract: | In this note we empirically analyze the link between state capacity and civil conflict via the manufacturing sector, which is the source of wealth for an emerging new elite interested in obtaining political representation, and is the outcome of a new political equilibrium more in tune with capital accumulation. This raises the cost of civil conflict, reducing its probability of occurrence. We find evidence in favor of our hypothesis in a panel of African countries. |
| Keywords: | civil conflict, manufacturing, state capacity, fragile states, Africa |
| JEL: | D74 O14 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uca:ucapdv:147&r=soc |
| By: | Eyal Carmi (Tel Aviv University); Gal OEstreicher-Singer (Tel Aviv University); Arun Sundararajan (New York University) |
| Abstract: | We study the online contagion of exogenous demand shocks generated by book reviews featured on the Oprah Winfrey TV show and published in the New York Times, through the co-purchase recommendation network on Amazon.com. These exogenous events may ripple through and affect the demand for a “network” of related books that were not explicitly mentioned in a review but were located “close” to reviewed books in this network. Using a difference-in-differences matched-sample approach, we identify the extent of the variations caused by the visibility of the online network and distinguish this effect from variation caused by hidden product complementarities. Our results show that the demand shock diffuses to books that are up to five links away from the reviewed book, and that this diffused shock persists for a substantial number of days, although the depth and the magnitude of diffusion varies widely across books at the same network distance from the focal product. We then analyze how product characteristics, assortative mixing and local network structure, play a role in explaining this variation in the depth and persistence of the contagion. Specifically, more clustered local networks “trap” the diffused demand shocks and cause it to be more intense and of a greater duration but restrict the distance of its spread, while less clustered networks lead to wider contagion of a lower magnitude and duration. Our results provide new evidence of the interplay between a firm’s online and offline media strategies and we contribute methods for modeling and analyzing contagion in networks. |
| Keywords: | networks, product networks, electronic commerce, ecommerce, recommender systems, identification, exogenous shocks |
| JEL: | L11 L81 M31 |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:1018&r=soc |
| By: | Frederic DOCQUIER (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) and FNRS); Elisabetta LODIGIANI (CREA, Université du Luxembourg and Centro Studi Luca dAgliano); Hillel RAPOPORT (CID, Harvard University, Bar-Ilan University and EQUIPPE); Maurice SCHIFF (World Bank, Development Economics Research Group) |
| Abstract: | Emigration affects institutions at home in a number of ways. While people may have fewer incentives to voice when they have exit options, emigrants can voice once abroad and contribute to the diffusion of democratic values and norms. We first document these channels and then consider dynamic-panel regressions to investigate the overall impact of emigration on institutions in the home country. We find that both openess to migration and human capital have a positive impact on institutions (as measured by standard democracy and economic freedom indices). This implies that unskilled migration has a positive effect on institutional quality while the effect of skilled migration (or brain drain) is ambiguous. Using the point estimates from our regressions, we simulate the marginal effect of skilled emigration on institutional quality. In general, the simulations confirm that the brain drain has an ambiguous impact on institutions, though a significant institutional gain obtains for a limited set of countries when incentive effects of the brain drain on human capital formation are taken into account. |
| Keywords: | Migration, brain drain, institutions, diaspora effects, democracy |
| JEL: | O1 F22 |
| Date: | 2010–09–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2010035&r=soc |
| By: | Achin Chakraborty |
| Abstract: | The economist’s conceptualisation of inequality in terms of interpersonal distribution of income or wealth, and the tradition of measurement of inequality that follows from this conceptualisation have not paid adequate attention to the need for reckoning inequality across social groups. In this paper they show that certain simple statistical tools to analyse categorical data can be shown to have properties that conform to our normative judgement on group inequality. [Working Paper No. 315] |
| Keywords: | Inequality, measurement, social groups, odds ratio, India |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2969&r=soc |
| By: | Andrabi, Tahir; Das, Jishnu |
| Abstract: | Winning"hearts and minds"inthe Muslim world is an explicitly acknowledged aim of U.S. foreign policy and increasingly, bilateral foreign aid is recognized as a vehicle towards this end. The authors examine the effect of aid from foreign organizations and on-the-ground presence of foreigners following the 2005 earthquake in Northern Pakistan on local attitudes. They show that four years after the earthquake, humanitarian assistance by foreigners and foreign organizations has left a lasting imprint on population attitudes. Measured in three different ways those living closer to the fault-line report more positive attitudes towards foreigners, including Europeans and Americans; trust in foreigners decreases 6 percentage points for every 10 Kilometers distance from the fault-line. In contrast, there is no association between distance to the fault-line and trust in local populations. Pre-existing differences in socioeconomic characteristics or population attitudes do not account for this finding. Instead, the relationship between trust in foreigners and proximity to the fault-line mirrors the greater provision of foreign aid and foreign presence in these villages. In villages closest to the fault-line, foreign organizations were the second largest providers of aid after the Pakistan army (despite reports to the contrary aid provision by militant organizations was extremely limited, with less than 1 percent of all respondents reporting any help from such organizations). The results provide a compelling case that trust in foreigners is malleable, responds to humanitarian actions by foreigners and is not a deep-rooted function of local preferences. |
| Keywords: | Post Conflict Reconstruction,Corporate Law,Population Policies,Hazard Risk Management,Statistical&Mathematical Sciences |
| Date: | 2010–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5440&r=soc |