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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2016‒01‒18
eleven papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Aronsson, Thomas (Department of Economics, Umeå University); Johansson-Stenman, Olof (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden); Wendner, Ronald (Department of Economics, University of Graz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with tax policy responses to charitable giving based on a model of optimal redistributive income taxation. The major contribution is the simultaneous treatment of (i) warm-glow and stigma effects of charitable donations; (ii) that the warm glow of giving and stigma of receiving charity may to some extent depend on relative comparisons; and (iii) that people are also concerned with their relative consumption more generally. Whether charity should be taxed or supported turns out to largely depend on the relative strengths of the warm glow of giving and the stigma of receiving charity, respectively, and on the positional externalities caused by charitable donations. In addition, imposing stigma on the mimicker (via a relaxation of the self-selection constraint) strengthens the case for subsidizing charity. We also consider a case where the government is unable to target the charitable giving through a direct tax instrument, and examine how the optimal marginal income tax structure is adjusted in response to charitable giving. |
| Keywords: | Conspicuous consumption; conspicuous charitable giving; optimal income taxation; warm glow; stigma |
| JEL: | D03 D62 H21 H23 |
| Date: | 2016–01–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0919&r=soc |
| By: | Balazs Lengyel (Institute of Economics - Centre for Economic and Regional Studies - Hungarian Academy of Sciences); Rikard Eriksson (Department of Geography and Economic History, Umea University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a new empirical perspective for analysing the role of social networks for an economic geography approach on regional economic growth by constructing large-scale networks from employee-employee co-occurrences in plants in the entire Swedish economy 1990-2008. We calculate the probability of employee-employee ties at plant level based on homophily-biased random network assumptions and trace the most probable relations of every employee over the full period. Then, we look at the inter-plant ties for the 1995-2008 period because the network is already well developed after five years of edge construction. We argue that these personal acquaintances are important for local learning opportunities and consequently for regional growth. Indeed, the estimated panel Vector Autoregressive models provide the first systematic evidence for a central claim in economic geography: social network density has positive effect on regional productivity growth. The results are robust against removing the old and therefore weak ties from the network. Interestingly, the positive effect of density on growth was found in a segment of the co-worker network as well, in which plants have never been linked by labour mobility previously. |
| Keywords: | social network, homophily, probability of ties, labour mobility, regional productivity growth, panel vector autoregression |
| JEL: | D85 J24 J61 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:1550&r=soc |
| By: | Martin Korndörfer (University of Leipzig); Boris Egloff (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz); Stefan C. Schmukle (University of Leipzig) |
| Abstract: | Does being from a higher social class lead a person to engage in more or less prosocial behavior? Psychological research has recently provided support for a negative effect of social class on prosocial behavior. However, research outside the field of psychology has mainly found evidence for positive or u-shaped relations. In the present research, we therefore thoroughly examined the effect of social class on prosocial behavior. Moreover, we analyzed whether this effect was moderated by the kind of observed prosocial behavior, the observed country, and the measure of social class. Across eight studies with large and representative international samples, we predominantly found positive effects of social class on prosociality: Higher class individuals were more likely to make a charitable donation and contribute a higher percentage of their family income to charity (32,090 >= N >= 3,957; Studies 1–3), were more likely to volunteer (37,136 >= N >= 3,964; Studies 4–6), were more helpful (N = 3,902; Study 7), and were more trusting and trustworthy in an economic game when interacting with a stranger (N = 1,421; Study 8) than lower social class individuals. Although the effects of social class varied somewhat across the kinds of prosocial behavior, countries, and measures of social class, under no condition did we find the negative effect that would have been expected on the basis of previous results reported in the psychological literature. Possible explanations for this divergence and implications are discussed. |
| Date: | 2015–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:1521&r=soc |
| By: | Francesco Andreoli (Department of Economics (University of Verona)); Claudio Zoli (Department of Economics (University of Verona)) |
| Abstract: | We study the heterogeneity of social interaction profiles among individuals and define the extent of the interaction dimension of segregation. An interaction profile quantifies the probabilities that one individual has to interact with different social groups. It can be inferred, for instance, from observation of social ties through networks data. Heterogeneity is minimal if everybody exhibit the same profile, and is maximal if everybody interacts with only one group. All the in-between configurations can be ordered on the bases of an intuitive principle based on operation that generate mixtures of interaction profiles. We proposes a characterization of the Gini-exposure index to assess heterogeneity in interaction patters in a society. One key advantage of this index is that overall heterogeneity can be decomposed into the segregation experienced by every individual with respect to other people in his own group (isolation) or in other groups (exposure). An preliminary empirical investigation of interaction patterns of natives and immigrants across Italian municipalities reveals connections and differences with other exposure measures. |
| Keywords: | Interaction, segregation, dissimilarity, Gini index. |
| JEL: | J71 D31 D63 C16 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ver:wpaper:30/2015&r=soc |
| By: | Maria Bigoni (University of Bologna); Gabriele Camera (Chapman University & University of Basel); Marco Casari (University of Bologna & IZA) |
| Keywords: | Endogenous institutions, experiments, repeated games, strategic uncertainty |
| JEL: | C70 C90 D03 E02 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:15-28&r=soc |
| By: | Thomas Aronsson (Umea University); Olof Johansson-Stenman (University of Gothenburg); Ronald Wendner (University of Graz) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with tax policy responses to charitable giving based on a model of optimal redistributive income taxation. The major contribution is the simultaneous treatment of (i) warm-glow and stigma effects of charitable donations; (ii) that the warm glow of giving and stigma of receiving charity may to some extent depend on relative comparisons; and (iii) that people are also concerned with their relative consumption more generally. Whether charity should be taxed or supported turns out to largely depend on the relative strengths of the warm glow of giving and the stigma of receiving charity, respectively, and on the positional externalities caused by charitable donations. In addition, imposing stigma on the mimicker (via a relaxation of the self-selection constraint) strengthens the case for subsidizing charity. We also consider a case where the government is unable to target the charitable giving through a direct tax instrument, and examine how the optimal marginal income tax structure is adjusted in response to charitable giving. |
| Keywords: | Conspicuous consumption; conspicuous charitable giving; optimal income taxation; warm glow; stigma |
| JEL: | D03 D62 H21 H23 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grz:wpaper:2016-01&r=soc |
| By: | Tobias Regner (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Astrid Matthey (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena) |
| Abstract: | By now there is substantial experimental evidence that people make use of 'moral wiggle room' (Dana et al., 2007), that is, they tend to exploit moral excuses for selfish behavior. However, this evidence is limited to dictator games. In our experiment, a trust game variant, we study whether moral wiggle room also prevails, when reciprocity is a potential motivation for being generous. Trustees' back transfer choices are elicited for five different transfer levels of the trustor. Moreover, we ask trustees to provide their back transfer schedule for different scenarios that vary the implementation probability of the back transfer. This design allows us to identify subjects who reciprocate and analyze how these reciprocators respond to the provision of moral wiggle room. Our results suggest that moral wiggle room exists as well in the context of reciprocity. Among our subjects, 40% of the reciprocators exploited moral wiggle room. |
| Keywords: | social preferences, pro-social behavior, experiments, reciprocity, moral wiggle room, self-image concerns |
| JEL: | C72 C91 D03 D80 |
| Date: | 2015–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2015-027&r=soc |
| By: | Tamilina, Larysa; Tamilina, Natalya |
| Abstract: | Drawing on a social-cognitive theory of psychology, this study introduces a new conceptual framework to explain trust building by individuals and the role that formal rules and laws may play in this process. Trust is viewed as composed of cultural, communal, and contextual components, with the latter encompassing formal institutions. We demonstrate that the contextual component measured through three institutional indexes is the strongest predictor of social trust that may not only condition the importance of cultural and communal components for the process of trust formation, but also trigger changes in them. We also furnish evidence that this impact may vary across formal institutional types and suggest that the autonomy dimension of the institutional framework is particularly important for social trust building. |
| Keywords: | interpersonal trust, trust formation, formal institutions, social-cognitive psychology |
| JEL: | K40 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68647&r=soc |
| By: | Seppälä, Timo; Mattila, Juri |
| Abstract: | In the Europe 2020 strategy, the European Commission has defined trust and security as one of the seven key pillars of its digital agenda. This decision, of course, is not a difficult one to rationalize. Without trust and security, the prospects of benefiting from any kind of a network of systems are extremely limited — no matter how interoperable and pervasive the network in itself may be. |
| Date: | 2016–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:briefs:42&r=soc |
| By: | Berggren, Niclas (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Nilsson, Therese (Lund University); Bjørnskov, Christian (Aarhyus University) |
| Abstract: | There is great variation in views on and treatment of minorities such as gay men across the world. We are the first to pinpoint what features of societies that are beneficial to gay men’s quality of life by making use of a unique new cross-country dataset covering 110 countries, the Gay Happiness Index. It covers how gays perceive public opinion about them, how they experience behavior towards them and how satisfied they are with their lives. Our study is based on the premise that it is important to look at minority-specific effects of policies and institutions and not solely at the effects for the average citizen, as well as the transmission mechanisms through which policies and institutions affect life satisfaction. We find that legal rights for gay men, GDP per capita, democracy and economic globalization tend to benefit gays, primarily by shaping public opinion and behavior in a pro-gay direction, while religion and living in a post-communist country exert a negative effect. These factors have largely been shown to matter for the well-being of people in general as well, which interestingly implies that “special rights” are not necessarily needed for gays but the same policies that provide a good life for most people. |
| Keywords: | Gays; Homosexuality; Minorities; Happiness; Wellbeing; Life satisfaction; Institutions; Democracy; Globalization |
| JEL: | I31 Z13 Z18 |
| Date: | 2015–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1101&r=soc |
| By: | Natalia N. Morozova (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article offers a discussion of Russia’s post-Soviet search for international legitimacy, informed by the notions of social antagonism and hegemony elaborated by E.Laclau and C. Mouffe. It is argued that discourse on humanitarian cooperation in the CIS is at the heart of Russia’s current attempts to gain international legitimacy: it addresses the demands of identity construction antagonistically opposed to the European ‘other’ and simultaneously inscribes Russian identity within a counter-hegemonic normative discourse. |
| Keywords: | political legitimacy, identity, discourse analysis, hegemony, social antagonism, Russian post-Soviet foreign policy |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:24/ir/2015&r=soc |