|
on Social Norms and Social Capital |
| By: | Giacomo Ponzetto; Ugo Troiano |
| Abstract: | Countries with greater social capital have higher economic growth. We show that social capital is also highly positively correlated across countries with government expenditure on education. We develop an infinite-horizon model of public spending and endogenous stochastic growth that explains both facts through frictions in political agency when voters have imperfect information. In our model, the government provides services that yield immediate utility, and investment that raises future productivity. Voters are more likely to observe public services, so politicians have electoral incentives to underprovide public investment. Social capital increases voters' awareness of all government activity. As a consequence, both politicians' incentives and their selection improve. In the dynamic equilibrium, both the amount and the efficiency of public investment increase, permanently raising the growth rate. |
| Keywords: | Social Capital, Government Expenditures, Economic Growth, Public Investment, Elections, Imperfect Information |
| JEL: | D72 D83 H50 H54 O43 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1307&r=soc |
| By: | Newman, Carol; Tarp, Finn; Van Den Broeck, Katleen |
| Abstract: | Information failures are a major barrier to formal financial saving in low income countries. Households in rural communities often lack the information necessary to set up formal deposit accounts or are uncertain about the returns to saving formally. In t |
| Keywords: | household savings, social capital, information failure, women.s unions, Vietnam |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2012-39&r=soc |
| By: | Büchner Charlotte; Cörvers Frank; Traag Tanja; Velden Rolf van der (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes four different transmission mechanisms, through which father’searnings affect son’s earnings: the educational attainment, cognitive skills, the culturalcapital of the family and the social capital in the neighborhood. Using a unique dataset that combines panel data from a birth cohort with earnings data from a largenationwide income survey and national tax files, our findings show that cognitive skillsand schooling of the son account for 50% of the father-son earnings elasticity. Educationby far accounts for the largest part, while cognitive skills mainly work indirectly througheducational attainment. Social capital of the neighborhood and cultural capital of theparents account for an additional 6% of the intergeneration income persistence. Fromthese two additional mechanisms, social capital appears to play a stronger role than thecultural capital of the parents. This means that 44% of the intergenerational persistenceis due to other unobserved characteristics for example personality traits or spillovereffects of family assets. |
| Keywords: | labour economics ; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2012007&r=soc |
| By: | Sumru Altug; Fabio Canova |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between institutions, culture and cyclical fluctuations for a sample of 45 European, Middle Eastern and North African countries. Better governance is associated with shorter and less severe contractions and milder expansions. Certain cultural traits, such as lack of acceptance of power distance and individualism, are also linked business cycle features. Business cycle synchronization is tightly related to similarities in the institutional environment. Mediterranean countries conform to these general tendencies. |
| Keywords: | Business cycles, institutions, culture, Mediterranean countries, synchronization. |
| JEL: | C32 E32 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1314&r=soc |
| By: | Traag Tanja; Lubbers Miranda Jessica; Velden Rolf van der (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate if peer relations affect a student’s risk of early schoolleaving.We use the sociometric data collection from the Dutch “Secondary EducationPupil Cohort 1999” to identify peer relations in a sample of almost 20,000 students inthe first grade of secondary education (mean age 13). This information is matched todata on educational attainment from 1999 to 2010 for these students, to measure laterearly school-leaving by both the focal students as well as their peers. Our results showthat both being friends with future early school-leavers as well as popularity amongfuture early school-leavers increases the risk of students to be early school-leaverslater in their educational career while other characteristics of the peer group such asgender composition, ethnic composition, average (non)cognitive skills and averagesocioeconomic background have no effects on the risk of early school-leaving. And whilecharacteristics like gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background play an importantrole in peer selection, the future dropout status does not have a major impact on peerselection. |
| Keywords: | labour market entry and occupational careers; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2012006&r=soc |
| By: | Gabriel Burdin |
| Abstract: | Worker-managed firms (WMFs) represent a marginal proportion of total firms and aggregate employment in most countries. The bulk of firms in real economies is ultimately controlled by capital suppliers. Different theoretical explanations suggest that workermanaged firms (WMFs) are prone to failure in competitive environments. Using a panel of Uruguayan firms based on social security records and including the entire population of WMFs over the period January 1997-July 2009, I present new evidence on worker managed firms´ survival. I find that the hazard of exit is 24%-38% lower for WMFs than for conventional firms. This result is robust to alternative estimation strategies based on semiparametric and parametric frailty duration models that impose different distributional assumptions about the shape of the baseline hazard and allow to consider firm-level unobserved heterogeneity. The evidence suggests that the marginal presence of WMFs in market economies can hardly be explained by the fact that these organizations exhibit lower survival chances than conventional firms. This paper adds to the literature on labormanaged firms, shared capitalism and to the Industrial Organization literature on firm survival. |
| Keywords: | labor-managed firms, capitalist firms, survival analysis |
| JEL: | P13 P51 C41 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:641&r=soc |
| By: | Benito Arruñada; Marco Casari; Francesca Pancotto |
| Abstract: | Through an experiment, we investigate how the level of rationality relates to concerns for equality and efficiency. Subjects perform dictator games and a guessing game. More rational subjects are not more frequently of the selfregarding type. When performing a comparison within the same degree of rationality, self-regarding subjects show more strategic sophistication than other subjects. |
| Keywords: | steps of reasoning, other-regarding preferences |
| JEL: | C91 C92 D63 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1306&r=soc |
| By: | Furtado, Delia (University of Connecticut); Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos (University of Cyprus) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of ethnic networks in disability program take-up among working-age immigrants in the United States. We find that even when controlling for country of origin and area of residence fixed effects, immigrants residing amidst a large number of co-ethnics are more likely to receive disability payments when their ethnic groups have higher take-up rates. Although this pattern can be partially explained by cross-group differences in satisfying the work history or income and asset requirements of the disability programs, we also find that social norms and, to a lesser extent, information sharing play important roles. |
| Keywords: | social security disability insurance, supplementary security income, networks, immigrants |
| JEL: | C31 H55 I18 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6649&r=soc |
| By: | Nikiforakis, Nikos; Oechssler, Jörg; Shah, Anwar |
| Abstract: | The power to coerce workers is important for the efficient operation of hierarchically structured organizations. However, this power can also be used by managers to exploit their subordinates for their own benefit. We examine the relationship between the power to coerce and exploitation in a laboratory experiment where a senior and a junior player interact repeatedly for a finite number of periods. We find that senior players try repeatedly to use their power to exploit junior workers. These attempts are successful only when junior workers have incomplete information about how their effort impacts on the earnings of senior players, but not when they have complete information. Evidence from an incentive-compatible questionnaire indicates that the social acceptability of exploitation depends on whether the junior worker can detect she is being exploited. We also show how a history of exploitation affects future interactions. |
| Keywords: | coercion; exploitation; disobedience; hierarchy; social norms. |
| Date: | 2012–06–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:awi:wpaper:0530&r=soc |